sad, bad, mad, glad day

SAD: I finished A Walk in the Woods this morning and I'm sad there's no more. Reading trail journals is informative and interesting and even sometimes fun, but reading Bryson's book gives you a completely different and uproariously funny picture of hiking the Appalachian Trail (AT). Bryson is informative about history and people and the trail, but it is the relationship between Bryson and his friend Katz that makes the book a really good time. Imagine Felix and Oscar on the AT and you might come close to the laugh-out-loud experience of A Walk in the Woods.

GLAD: Seems Paul Newman and Robert Redford are considering making another movie together about -- take a wild guess -- A Walk in the Woods. While I do think they're a bit long in the tooth and, as John pointed out, it would be more like Grumpy Old Men on the AT, it is a movie that should be made. Then again, I doubt they could come close to portraying in two hours the pictures that are still tumbling ass over tea kettle in my mind, but you never know. It's like a little boy once said when asked if he liked TV better than radio. "The pictures are nice, but not as good as the radio."

BAD: Wouldn't you just know it? AT thru hikers and AT hikers in general are up in arms about the proposed Redford-Newman movie because it would bring too many people to the AT and spoil their fun. They don't realize that by writing trail journals, talking about the AT, and buying books about others who have hiked the AT they are publicizing the trail, too. They in general do not like the book because Bryson was not a true thru-hiker and he did not portray the trail as they wish it to be portrayed, but the same can be said of them. Everyone has a different experience on the AT or on any trail. What I see is not what you will see or experience and certainly not what someone else -- anyone else -- will see and experience. You bring to and take away from any experience what is within you. So, to those purists I say, GET OVER YOURSELF!

ADDITION: It seems my comment on Trail Place was not appreciated and my comment was deleted and my membership at the site has been terminated without notice and without responding to an email query. Guess I hit a nerve? Like John said, I can't keep from commenting on something that strikes a nerve. I asked him if that was a challenge and he said it was no contest. He could be right.

MAD: This post is all John's fault. He's the one who got me going on the AT, suggested Bryson's book, and sent me the links for the proposed movie and the hiker's board where I stumbled over the holier-than-thou-head-up-their-butts purists who want to keep the AT all to themselves. They don't realize they have done more to bring hikers to the AT in the past 10 years than in its entire 81-year existence. So a big fat raspberry fest to everyone who wants to keep the good stuff to themselves. And thanks to the fella who is responsible for giving me so much joy and so much to laugh about by sharing his views, his dreams, his goals, and his taste in books.

Oh, and it looks like some of the homosexuals in the country are up in arms about Battlestar Galactica because it is heavy on the religious themes and procreation. I have lots of gay friends and always have, but to those who think every single solitary show, movie, and book ought to at least mention them and every political platform include them, GET REAL! You are entitled to sleep with whomever you choose in whatever fashion you choose, but you wouldn't be here at all if it weren't for the heterosexuals. Live with it.

I'll shut up now.