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If it had not happened in reality, it would be difficult to imagine. The Benelli community—fans of a small Italian marque of motorcycles— is riven asunder by a dispute over whether the deTomaso multi-cylinder bikes are copies of the Honda's or not. Or perhaps the dispute is over whether the copying was inspired or due to a lack of creativity on management's part. The dispute is so arcane even I, a card-carrying Benelli and Italian-bike dweeb, cannot keep track.
In any case, feelings are hurt on both sides of the argument and folks feel attacked for sharing their own point of view. As is the case in such matters of little import (this reminds of me of my favorite grad school joke: Why are academic rivalries so intense? Because the stakes are so low!), more time has been spent discussing the hurt feelings and attacks than discussing the merits of the respective sides. Needless to say this sort of thing seldom happens between various brands of Italian bikes, much less between Italian bikes and Japanese bikes. Even the Ducati world is too large to accommodate this kind of strife. Uff da!
Posted by Underblog at November 28, 2008 2:47 PM
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