"Don46" wrote in message
oups.com...

I was thinking that a group devoted to flyfishing might have a calming
effect on all its members!

A sentiment we encounter with some frequency here. Someday it might be
interesting to explore the origins of this particular strange notion. In
the meantime, for a broader view, please allow me to refer you to "Why
People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other
Confusions of Our Time," by Michael Shermer. A limited view of excerpts
from the book is available from Google Books he

http://tinyurl.com/2ujjwr

For an earlier (but no less informative and valuable) exploration on similar
themes, one need look no further than Charles MacKay's immortal classic,
"Memoirs of Popular Delusions" (published in three volumes and sometimes
listed as "Memoirs of Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds," or
"Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds." Frankly, I've never managed
to muster enough interest in the history of its publication to try to sort
it all out.), available in plain text version at Project Gutenberg. All
three volumes can be accessed he

http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/m

by scrolling down the page to MacKay's name.

Why all the vitriol?

That wasn't vitriol. That was just me playing with my dicklet.

Wolfgang