Geezer with a Grudge: What is the difference between a Harley and a Hoover?

May 6, 2009

What is the difference between a Harley and a Hoover?

Sadly, I did not write this, but I found it on Craig's List and was overcome with an irresistable urge to make sure as much of the world as possible has the opportunity to read it. Whoever the author is, I salute you:

What is the difference between a Harley and a Hoover? (Minneapolis)
Date: 2009-04-19, 9:54AM CDT

ANSWER: On a Hoover, the dirt bag goes on the INSIDE!

(Sorry, Craig's List removed the rant. Probably some loser HD fans in CL's admin. Nuts, it would have been cool to have copied and pasted the whole rant, but I didn't realize CL would be so wimpy.) I must have received a dozen accusations that this was my rant and I was too gutless to sign it. If I could write that well, I'd have signed it.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...: It's important to realize that a great many American males have been gender-disenfranchised by the social changes of the past 30 years. Those who are too old to join the Marines are forced to buy Harleys in order to imagine themselves powerful and fearsome creatures.

KC; 5/6/09, 4:33 PM
Anonymous said...: Tom,

Fun. Thanks for the link. Very funny. They are in deep shit (HD). Did you see that yesterday their CFO quit?

Note to all bcc'd...another 'dot'. Lots of profanity, so don't open if you are not ready. I did not read the entire rant, because it is not necessary to get the 'dot'. Just made a quick scan, nodded to myself, 'dot', and wrote this to Tom, and to you.

Andy Goldfine; 5/6/09, 4:33 PM
Anonymous said...: Salutations Tom,

The original joke punchline was written in 1993 and is as follows:

"You can only fit one dirtbag on a Hoover."; 5/6/09, 9:06 PM
Anonymous said...: Tom, it's my duty to inform you that I have grave reservations in believing that you'll EVER represent the Harley-Davidson motor company in any fashion. Sorry, I know the truth sometimes hurts.; 5/28/09, 1:22 PM
Anonymous said...: The punchline of the version I heard was "the position of the dirt bag."

I'm amazed at the number of "lifestyle" HD owners. They almost never wear full-coverage helmets, preferring the "porridge pots", as the Brits used to call them. Those and the other standard uniform items: Leather vest, engineer boots, chain on wallet, tatoos, straight pipes, etc. ad nauseum. Truly stunning conformity masquerading as rugged individualism.

I sympathize somewhat with the poor, misguided creatures. I don't think that Neanderthals died out completely.

PL; 6/2/09, 1:25 PM

The Geezer Story

I stumbled upon this column name (Geezer with a Grudge) almost 20 years ago, in 1999. The first Minnesota Motorcycle Monthly editor I worked with, in late 1999, complained that the magazine was getting no mail and the editors wanted to know if any readers were still out there. I fired off a sarcastic note, as a joke, intended to provide a little humor and some feedback. He published it as an article and later called me to say he'd received more mail on that letter than he'd received in the past year! I followed that with an offer to write a monthly column attempting to piss off a particular section of the magazine's readership to see if that tactic would generate some mail.

It did, probably more regularly than the magazine wanted at times, and I wrote a monthly column for MMM until the magazine died in 2018.

I plan to post an occasional old Geezer article into the blog, followed by short comments about the current status of my perspective on our activity/sport/vehicle of choice.