The Number 1 Reason Why Carrier Pigeons are Better than E-Mail.

Because when you send something that is likely to cause confusion & misunderstandings by carrier pigeon, there's at least a chance it will get eaten by a cat before it gets to its' destination.

I'm. Just. Sayin'.

ps - as long as I'm posting, here, might as well link to an extremely interesting USA Today article. Sort of like an expanded version of the Coast Guard press release I posted not long ago. Thank you David at Never Sea Land (best mermaids anywhere!) for the heads-up. Here in fact is the email I sent him in response - as I say in the very first paragraph, I don't have time for coherent commentary but as incoherent commentary goes, the rest of the email wasn't too bad...

ohhhh...I'll definitely post it. Thanks for the link. Work's crazy so I won't have time to come up with a coherent commentary. This is definitely in the same vein as that Coast Guard press release I posted the other day.

A friend of mine in the CG Auxiliary told me that the Coast Guard is really going to be focusing a lot more on paddlecraft this year. I asked him if they'd considered making a more kayak-specific Boating Safety course (the current one is very motorboat-centric) - that's not on the drawing board, but what they ARE going to be doing is establishing much closer contact with the people who sell the kayaks.

Most actual kayak shops are already very aware of giving prospective buyers a rundown
of the risks & what you can do to allay them (take classes take classes take classes & never assume that you aren't going in the water), offering lessons & having plenty of literature on hand about clubs, boating safety, rules of the road etc. Those places are all going to welcome whatever the Coast Guard wants to do to help them spread the message.

It's actually the Wal-Marts & Sam's Clubs where I wonder what sort of reception the Coast Guard is going to get - I imagine it's going to be along the lines of "Huh?"

A lot of kayaks these days are designed to be very, very beginner-friendly, but that turns into a huge problem when they're just easy-to-use enough to get that beginner out into a situation where conditions turn rough & the poor beginner suddenly discovers that they don't have the skills to handle it.

You occasionally hear sitatops described as "idiot-proof". Unfortunately, "idiot-proof boat" is an oxymoron!