Althouse: Infested with llamas.

July 9, 2016

Infested with llamas.

"Saturday’s Tour de France stage might be infested with llamas."

32 comments:

Eric the Fruit Bat said...: I've tried watching the Tour de France on TV.

I find it monotonous.

But I like llamas.; 7/9/16, 8:00 AM
richlb said...: I first read that as "infested with Hamas." Being France, that may not be too far off either.; 7/9/16, 8:05 AM
TrespassersW said...: Infested with Llamas would be a great band name.; 7/9/16, 8:13 AM
Danno said...: More likely, Infested with Spandex.; 7/9/16, 8:32 AM
Bob Ellison said...: Roy Jacobsen, you've been reading Dave Barry, right?

"Infested" is a word we usually associate with viruses, bacteria, or very small bugs. Maybe mice.

Llamas are pretty big. I'm trying to picture the animal that could be infested with llamas. Maybe the Big Friendly Giant. (The BFG, BTW, is the dumbest movie title ever for a movie mostly aimed at kids.); 7/9/16, 8:34 AM
rhhardin said...: Llamas don't chase you, so that will be okay. Just go around them.

Steep downhills are the problem, incidentally, not steep uphills. Uphill is no harder than anything else, up to the point that the bike goes over backwards. That's what those gears are for.; 7/9/16, 9:03 AM
YoungHegelian said...: Llamas AKA the French pox.; 7/9/16, 9:37 AM
Original Mike said...: Look out, there are llamas!; 7/9/16, 9:51 AM
mesquito said...: Cuidado!; 7/9/16, 10:01 AM
John said...: Are any of them named Fernando?; 7/9/16, 10:55 AM
Wince said...: "...were likely lying down on the road to warm up from the cold mist."

Alternatively, it could be a Llamas Lives Matter protest.; 7/9/16, 11:01 AM
Quaestor said...: Damn your eyes, Original Mike. The nanosecond my brain registered infested with llamas the memory of John Cleese's Spanish accent popped into my consciousness,but far too late for glory.

Infested with llamas,eh? Maybe they're shooting a remake of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail".; 7/9/16, 11:20 AM
buwaya said...: Llamas are popular. Carabaos are not popular.
This makes no sense. Carabaos make great pets and are useful besides. They are good with children, know their place, crop weeds and in a pinch can subsitute for a tractor.
They give great milk that would be an instant hit with the Whole Foods fans.
I dont see what llamas are good for other than keeping coyotes away.; 7/9/16, 11:51 AM
CWJ said...: When I first logged in, I had not yet put on my glasses and read this as "Infested with Hamas." I wondered why the Arabs were targeting a French bike race.; 7/9/16, 12:22 PM
CWJ said...: I see I was not alone in this.; 7/9/16, 12:23 PM
David said...: A Lamentation of Llamas.; 7/9/16, 12:31 PM
Lucien said...: When an infestation occurs, bulls are used to chase the llamas away, hence the phrase "horns of a de-llama".; 7/9/16, 12:39 PM
Quaestor said...: Bob Ellsion wrote: The BFG, BTW, is the dumbest movie title ever for a movie mostly aimed at kids.

All kids know that BFG means "big fucking gun".; 7/9/16, 12:41 PM
Quaestor said...: It's a misprint.

Saturday's stage of the Tour de France is routed through a Buddhist monastery.; 7/9/16, 12:44 PM
traditionalguy said...: Llamas are lame.; 7/9/16, 1:03 PM
Dr Weevil said...: David, David, David - you missed the joke that was staring you in the face.
It's a Llamentation of Llamas, duh!; 7/9/16, 2:20 PM
Dr Weevil said...: Jeez, do I have to do all the work here, traditionalguy?
Llamas are llame.; 7/9/16, 2:21 PM
Dr Weevil said...: Then there's the answer to 'Which great philosopher has a name in which 4/5ths of the letters are the same?'
That would be Mediaeval Catalan philosopher Ramon Llull. Too bad he died before he or anyone he knew had ever seen a llama (1316). They would have gotten on welll together.; 7/9/16, 2:24 PM
Original Mike said...: You'll get the next one, Quaestor.; 7/9/16, 2:35 PM
Sam's Hideout said...: I didn't see any llamas today, but it was a pretty quiet stage until just before the final mountain summit, when Chris Froome attacked. He did that on the previous summit and picked up the King of the Mountains points, then "sat up" and let the rest of the group rejoin. This time he kept on sprinting then went into a very low crouch position, low on the top tube in front of the seat, a position I've seen only a few other cyclists use on descents. He even did some pedaling in that position which I've never seen before. He slowly pulled away from the rest of the group, gaining about 25 seconds by the bottom of the descent. In the final relatively flat kilometer to the finish, the chasers pulled back about half that lead but still, Froome won the stage in a solo finish and gained the overall lead.; 7/9/16, 5:15 PM
MisterBuddwing said...: To this day, when I think of llamas, I think of Robby Roseman on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2izgdQH7Tc; 7/9/16, 6:09 PM
Joe said...: Hard to give a shit since is became a non-secret that the Tour de France is the Tour de Cheaters.

(That most riders get a tows from chase cars is blindingly obvious.

Also, turns out that mechanical cheating using small motors is such a concern that a host of measures were added to try to detect it. Greg LeMond warned about this last year, but everyone scoffed until a rider was caught early this year.); 7/9/16, 9:37 PM
Fred Drinkwater said...: Eric the Fruit Bat:
What they don't show on US TV is the hours of batshit insane commercialism before the race starts, in the massive "caravan" which precedes the racers on course, and at the finishes.
It was so intense that I remarked to an Aussie in my group "this would never be allowed in the US." It makes the Super Bowl look like PBS by comparison.
However, it is amazing entertainment the first few times you see it. Especially the cute girls (and guys, I suppose) harnessed into rigs on top of the parade vehicles so they can toss sponsor giveaways to the crowds. Remember, this is not some sedate 3-mile-per-hour parade; no, these guys are ahead of the racers and are winding through the narrow small town roads at race speeds, i.e. 40 kph. Un-effing-believable.; 7/9/16, 10:10 PM
F said...: Llamas are rellated to camells. And please don't ask "one llump, or two?"; 7/9/16, 11:16 PM
rhhardin said...: If you create a dirt mound in your llama pasture, your llama will stand on it.; 7/10/16, 5:44 AM
thanh64bit said...: Thanks for your content
Tấm cách nhiệt giá rẻ; 7/10/16, 7:55 AM
Johanna Lapp said...: What's the difference between a one-L lama, a two-L llama and a three-L llama?; 7/10/16, 8:37 PM