Doug and I are both impressed by the civility shown in the "knife and scouting thread. " This could have been a potentially heated debate. It is so easy to sit at a computer, expecting the world to agree with our experiences, our opinions, our reality. Have I mentioned Cold Steel makes a line of boar spears.......

<<Have I mentioned Cold Steel makes a line of boar spears....>> ROTFLMAO! Whew! Hope I didn't just go and spoil that! How about PSK X-acto blades at 10 paces instead?<br><br>Tom

After the suprising ( but illuminating) number of posts my knife resource created I was making a pun about the boar spears. I think for April fools day we should have a contest. The craziest , dumbest, most convoluted question posted will win a Beta format bootleg tape collection of SURVIVOR. I will post "Wilson wants an answer." As an example;1. Is the liquid in my Suunto compass potable, or should I boil it in a survival situation? 2. I just purchased Lifeboat matches. Will these work outside a liferaft? I live in de Moines Iowa and we don't have any boating supply stores. Does BlueLine stock liferafts?

My wife and I watch Survivor (Yes. I'm admitting to it in public. It's basically a soap opera set in the pseudo-wilderness (teams of cameramen hoovering around the camp and EMTs in helicoters 5 minutes away is not the true wilderness) I enjoy it because of the stupid, boneheads they get (on purpose I believe) and the stupid bonehead decisions they make.<br><br>Last night, the losing team voted off an ex-fighter pilot. He was the only guy on the team that knew what he was doing and displayed leadership, which is exactly why the voted him off. His skills and knowledge threatened them.<br><br>So, Chris, rest assured that you wouldn't last a week on that show (that's meant as a compliment).<br><br>I just have to add that my biggest laugh came from an early epsode last year in the Austrailian outback. They were trying to light a fire using a bow and stick to no avail. The woman who spearheaded the effort laments, "This is exactly how they did it in the book!" What a bonehead! (Have I said bonehead enough times?) You know you're going to the outback with limited resources in pseudo-survivla situation, and you never even tried to light a fire once before you left??? <br><br>Practice. Practice. Practice.<br><br>Anyway, should be an interesting April 1. :-)

<br>Hmm. I don't watch the show, or haven't after the first couple of episodes- it is, as you concede, very contrived. However, I was under the impression that it's a winner-take-all "there can be only one" (insert Highlander theme) deal.<br><br>If that's the case, then voting off more capable members may make some sense. You'd want them around early while they were doing you or your team some good, but you'd certainly want to vote off the most competent before you had to compete with them directly.<br><br>So, yes, I assume Chris would get voted off early, and that is a compliment.<br>

You and Doug deserve the credit for maintaining an environment where civility can survive and even become the norm. I know it's not easy- I've been in that position- and I know the forum has gone through some rough patches, and that you took the steps necessary to correct it's course. That can't have been an easy decision either.<br><br>It's no accident that I came back when I did.<br>

Tank goodness a "Survivor" discussion is on the campfire forum.<br><br>Yes, the strong end up getting voted off becasue they are a threat. But these knuckleheads are in for trouble becasue none of them want to work at the basics, preparing water, gathering food and building suitable shelter. The winner will be on the island for 39 days, which is a long time.<br><br>During the previous season in Africa, one team was dysfunctional as well, and they suffered. They didn't prepare their water properly, hence many returned with multiple deseases/parasites). At one point they went to their watering hole to find a huge pile of elephant dung in the middle... and they left it in there while they still collected water! They did boil the water, although I suspect that they didn't do it long enough or hot enough, but PLEASE, remove the dung from your water supply! And they ran very low on food to the point theier self-inposed daily ration was too low. You could see the physical and psychological effect this had on the people. From this point of view, the show is mildly interesting. Although I think the producers are prostituting these poor idiots who really have no business or desire to be there except for the dream of "winning" a miliion dollars.<br><br>I know P.T. Barnum said that there's a sucker born every minute, but I never expected to so many of them on the same TV show.<br><br>