Off_White

Yeah, that's possible, my crystal ball is in the shop and sunspots are playing havoc with my wiretaps.

I just know that there is a link to be made here to the German cannibal story, but I don't have the urge to actually look it up. I do recall that the two gents (donor and DIY surgeon) both found it rather inedible.

One of my faves was on my old International pickup. I put a labelling sticker from my buddy's sister's place of employment, the San Francisco Sewage Treatment Plant, on the driver side door. It said, "Primary Scum"

Pope said: What is it you're reading? What I've heard is that the ALPS fellow doesn't care about the bolts, he's pissed about the trail. I think JayB's post was pretty spot on, and your efforts to stuff the rabbit back in the hat are futile. If most of the folks who started climbing since you did were drawn into the sport by the convience of bolts, why is it harder than ever to get on the classic free grade IV free climbs in Yosemite? Why can I no longer spend three days in Boston Basin without seeing anyone? I once climbed the complete North Ridge of Stuart in late August and didn't see anyone besides my partner from the time we left the car until we got back to it; The steady traffic up there now that makes a recurrence of that trip unlikely is not due to bolts. You gotta figure out how to accomodate the greater volume of people who climb now, and accept the fact that most of them derive as much pleasure from the sport as you do, and are just as entitled to the activity. Though I find myself arguing on the pro-bolt side, I'm not of the "anything goes" ilk, and I thought AlpineK's list of likes and dislikes pretty accurately reflected my feelings on the matter. You're not going to get that list of ground rules enforced by the Forest Service though, they see you in the same boat with the developers of Infinte Bliss. It's not your ethics I disagree with, it's the way you want to use them to achieve a selfish goal of denying others the rewards they find in climbing that I find so objectionable.

You got something against baeocystis, cyanescens, or the humble stunzi?

Am I misreading you, or are you advocating that people who crap in a crevasse deserve the death penalty?

Distel, regardless of whether Glacier or Blowboarder's name is "Vance," it's ill mannered to out people's real names unless they agree to do so. I'd also like to point out that you're not in Spray right now, so please behave a little more politely.

Right on Teddy, have you finally seen the light? Can we count on you to organize the Boston branch of Impeach Bush Now? I knew sometime the dubious antics of this tawdry administration would move you beyond party loyalty and that your innate love of democratic institutions would lead you to reject the Hooligan In Chief.

Yes, I can certainly agree to that. I'll also agree that "hate" is a bit of a loaded buzzword, and appreciate your frankness in embracing "strongly dislike"

Are you sure you don't mean your Golden Years? Heh, now I'm quibbling about vocabulary. source The mention of millenialism is interesting, seems it's another hallmark of a fundamentalist world view.

I see nothing gratuitous, I call it like I see it. Do you want to quibble about vocabulary? Would you prefer the term "dislike"? How about "despise"? I notice that you don't disupute that you want "those people" to go away from "your" sport. You, Pope, and I are demographically similar. We're middle aged middle class family guys who've been climbing for in the neighborhood of 30 years. We're not taking big risks, we're not climbing anywhere near the technical limits of the sport, hell, we're probably not climbing as well as we did 10 years ago, and we're for damn sure not climbing as often. We're not historically significant enough to get noticed for past achievements, we're not going to get noticed for our current abilities, and we're not quite old enough to make the "awwww, it's so cute that they can still climb" category. What avenue for cheastbeating do you have left besides climbing on a soapbox to rage about ethical purity and sport cleansing? Is there really any substance there anyway? How do your deeply held values (with regards to climbing differ from AlpineK's list of likes and dislikes?: I think this statement is something most everyone here, myself included would agree with. How much more pure are you asking the sport to be?

It somehow seems fitting that you would choose the image of shit on an AIDS ribbon as a graphic emblem of the disdain you hold for other climbers. What is your symbolic subtext here, do you perhaps also have some diatribe about how "gay cancer" will get rid of people you don't like in the same way that limiting access and banning bolts will eliminate all those climbers you hate? Having read your polemics and Pope's rants for several years, it seems to me that you both would like the sport climbers, the boulderers, the gym climbers, the loud climbers, the young climbers, in fact, most climbers to just go away. You think by embracing limitations to access you can achieve your goal? Word up professor, to ALPS you're still a climber, and the movement to remove people from wilderness wants you gone as well. You fancy yourself a traditionalist, when in fact you are a fundamentalist. You hark back to a rosy past when you were young, and climbing made you feel special. I too like that 32 year old essay from Chouinard's old catalog. At the time, it was written by someone on the cutting edge of climbing pushing new ideas to advance the sport. In contrast, you (and I) are more like the back side of a dull butter knife, and your dream is to limit climbing and narrow the definitions to resemble your memories. Like a fundamentalist you are selective in what part of history and tradition you stress. As others have tried to point out, bolts have long played a roll in climbing, and there were plenty of bolts placed in 1972. I've also enjoyed many of your posts over the last couple years, and I recently thought of you and developed a spontaneous grin at my first sighting of "The Bomb" burrito in a convenience market cold case. You have a gift for humor, and a style all your own with a Google image search. I don't mean to imply that you have brought nothing of value to this place, but it's the hatred and cold dismissal you wield towards those who don't conform to your behavioral mandates that often make you a bitter and unwelcome presence.

Its amazing how many people have not seen The Jerk, and boy do they give you strange looks when you say this. (I usually phrase it "I was born a poor black child" but memory, ahh, umm, who knows?)

*bump* Hey, whaddya know, it's almost Wednesday again.

Oh, if you do, please post a TR, I'm certain it would be very entertaining. Hell, I'm already laughing.

Getting some consultation isn't a bad idea, but you'll probably do better with a paranoid carpenter who tends to overbuild and understands the forces involved and where to put them. Ages ago I used a lapidary shop at a college to slice rocks in half for a climbing wall. It had a vice and self-fed, a set up more designed for stones than the average tile saw. The blade on a wet saw is no where near as scary as a table saw (which I think was Caldwell's personal trimming device).

"It's God's will" is not a phrase I want to hear from a President regarding policy decisions he's made. If this is true, I find it pretty damn scary.

I just got my jackboots resoled with stealth rubber, and I've been itching to try them out.

Me, I did it, moved your digressions to it's own thread. You are not, and no matter how much surgery you get you never will be, a hot chick on a motorcycle, so give it a rest and stop talking about yourself for a little while.

Okay, I spawned this digression off the hot chick motorcycle thread, bitch all you want.

I wouldn't be surprised if "Smells Like Teen Spirit" winds up occupying that niche. I'm not a huge Nirvana fan, but I do think Nevermind was a turning point for pop radio: that was the first time I ever heard anything that raw declared "pop" by legions of critics.

Lest we drift off topic...

Wrong. Moderators and Admins (this includes you btw) ban people for being complete assholes, and one of them happened to be your friend. Get over it already, sheesh. Why, the location of the dirtbag, of course!

Hey, it worked for Doctor Flash Amazing. Coined himself a monniker like that, and voila: prana clad girlfriend.