wrote...
Flattery (as they used to say back in the day when the comparison had a
readily recognizable meaning) is like soft soap.......it's 90% lye.

True, but you fail to understand, or choose to ignore, the fact that
flattery is also similar to grease in that it often reduces
friction. To be blunt with you, I have better things to do than
waste my time in a running ****ing match with you. The sad fact is
that I sometimes find myself with spare time, which only causes
further problems. I would like nothing more than to someday be
friends with you, but you seem to want to discourage that effort.
The fact that you hardly know me, have never met my daughter and
brought up the subject of our relationship only proves that you were
trying to hurt me on a personal level in regards to a situation that
you know absolutely ****ing nothing about. It is something that you
know nothing about, but you felt you could use it in your efforts to
**** me off. For better or worse, I admit that it worked. While
that particular instance ****ed me off, it did nothing to convince
me to "hate" you. The more I thought about it, the more I felt
sorry for you because it is a bond that you have not been able to
understand and appreciate. For some strange reason, even at your
worst, I still find it easy to pity you.

The
character of ROFF does not depend to any appreciable extent on my presence
or contributions. I don't make it......I just play to it.

Unfortunately, you do tend to provide friction whenever possible
IMO. Got any grease? If so, can I borrow some? ;-)

In essence, I disagree with you above view in much the same way that
I view Hitler or Stalin as not "making situations and just playing
them." I am not saying that you are a Hitler or Stalin, but am
saying that your actions do have an impact just as Hitler or Stalin
did have an impact in their time and situation. This is a "cyber
world," but you "input" does have a "real world" consequence. You
are pretty big on "tweaking" history for your jabs against people
and I'll throw out "Judge not, lest ye be judged." There will come
a time and a place where your mouth is going to earn you a world of
hurt. It just seems to be in your nature as much as a mosquito has
it in its nature to try and suck blood from a "victim." I am
beginning to understand and accept the fact that is just who you
are.....

Glad to hear it. As it says on the toilet seat, we aims to please.

Mine only says "Kohler." :-(

It was for me. I only regret that I lacked the means to make it so for the
bear.

Very true. A bear that doesn't fear humans and associates them with
food, either as possessing food or *as* food, isn't exactly a good
thing and often leads to the bear's demise. There *may* be quite a
few similarities with your bear's experiences and the one in the
following link.

http://bozemandailychronicle.com/art.../news50945.txt

While I have had a few run-ins with bears, I fear I still am
"careless" when it comes to bears because none of them have happened
in a camping situation. I mean let's be honest here, storing your
food in a vehicle, not leaving anything with food scent lying
around, etc all require quite a bit of work and I'm inherently
lazy. Your story is the closest I have been to a bear encounter
while in a camping situation and was actually entertaining. But it
also demonstrated where the very same "causes" that I "provide" may
eventually lead. I am sure that wasn't something you intended, but
it did strike a chord with me. I guess that makes your story not
only entertaining, but also educational on personal level so I
really related to it.

The experience was unnerving. In retrospect it's easy to make of it
whatever one wants to.......that's the beauty of of unscathed survival.

I didn't consider it a "survival" story most likely because of my
perspective, but it does have the potential of becoming one. ;-)
Your story was definitely one of those "Great, now WTF do I do?"
kind of stories and the thought of your running around pantless
during most of the episode was freakin' hilarious! I could easily
picture myself in the same situation and found it very easy to
relate to your experience.

From all reports, it appears that the fishing was about what it always is at
the Penns clave. Some people caught a lot of fish (they worked hard at it)
and some didn't (in many cases despite the fact that they worked hard at
it). I didn't work very hard at it. I had other things on my agenda.

I found Penn's to be a very difficult place to fish and I had hoped
to get back there this year. It was/is my hope that with time the
mysteries may eventually be revealed. Of course if I figured it all
out, then it wouldn't be any fun. Thankfully it seems that Penn's
is a place where even veterans find themselves in tough situations
and so it remains a challenge. That is part of the allure IMO.

One of the things I remember most about Penn's was a fish that kept
rising and rising and rising despite my efforts to catch him. I
tried everything I had in terms of flies and pointed him out to you
as I was walking out of the river and you were walking down the
bank. You walked in fishing a March Brown, which wasn't even close
to being the same kind of March Brown that I came with, and caught
that fish. My challenge was coming from out west and trying to fish
that location with flies based upon patterns out here with only size
of the hook being the difference. It took me a few days to get the
size and colors right and I caught more fish, but it was still hard
work and I left with the impression that the place was a challenge
to fish. I actually enjoyed the trip more because of the challenges
involved. The fact that you caught a fish that I viewed as
"troublesome" was ironic and made the situation very memorable. I
mean seriously, based upon our "history" here on ROFF, I would have
rather it been several other people. g

Not likely. One can only go so far in that direction. This was a pretty
straighforward and very factual account, with only one insignificant
deviation (for literary effect) at the very end. The humor (such as it
is......Frank will clarify in the epilogue) was inherent in the situation.

Fishermen often claim the same thing. Wait a year or two until
one of those guys from NC start re-telling the story. The bear will
probably gain about 200-300 pounds and develop an attitude (which
already seems to be happening). ;-)

I intend to catch up on his fasion tips just as soon as I finish the
cookbook.

Just make sure you don't do either while wearing a bathing suit! g
I do look forward to the cookbook. I have found several of the
recipes that you and Forty have argued about to be damn tasty.
Well, not the actual recipes, but applications for certain
ingredients into my own recipes. Basically, helpful hybridization!

Allow me to clarify. I have always been conservative to the point of being
downright old-fashioned. I tend to take cues from the likes of Jefferson,
Hamilton, Paine, Adams, Madison, Washington, Parks, etc.

I think most of us (US citizens) do this because it is the system
that most of us (US citizens, again) have grown up in.
Interpretations of such people and applications into the "here and
now" often lead to conflict however. Some people view the ideas and
ideals of Hamilton, Adams, Paine, etc to be somewhat outdated in
this day and age and look to make revisions along the way. For
example, Hamilton shot Burr in a duel of honor but you seem to frown
upon the notion of firearms having a place in modern society or
something. No need to answer since your views are obviously
different from that particular time in history or from when it was
actually *required* of all able bodied men to carry a firearm.

I think we all look for what we view to be the best in the ideals of
our founding fathers, but the devil is in the details and we often
find ourselves at odds because of our perspectives. It isn't so
much a matter of who is right or wrong *personally*, but a matter of
how the two opposing sides can find a common ground that is suitable
to the majority. The beauty of our system is that it is in a
constant state of flux as each generation "tweaks" the system to fit
their day and age. Personally, I enjoy such discussions because
they prove to be educational when property presented.

While the people you list are historical figures, they were also
"forward thinking" for their time and seem to hold much different
views than those that you currently hold. Being human, they may
have made some mistakes along the way and it is us up to us, as a
nation, to deal with it. "Those who fail to remember the past are
condemned to repeat it" is just as true as "those who *live* by the
past are condemned to repeat it." What some may fail to realize is
that growth and/or progress often take place within people and that
discussion and debate are often the catalyst for this growth and/or
progress. Basically, people and their ideas change, for better or
worse, over time based largely in part upon their experiences.
While some people live their lives by selectively reliving the past,
others have already moved on to more important things and continue
to grown, learn and adapt as situations warrant and time moves on.
It is the sharing and comparing of experiences that is important to
our future not only individually, but collectively, and is the path
that our system has given us to tread upon.
--
Warren
(use troutbum_mt on either yahoo or earthlink to respond via email)