From: Mark Lathem <???????????????>
Subject: Idle Ramblings...

"...if you have never picked up a fly rod before,you will soon find it 
factually and theologically true that man by nature is a damn mess."
		                                -Norman Maclean

This quote, from "A River Runs Through It" (a very good movie and an
even better novella) at the end of Mark Newman's submission to PD #207 
started me thinking:

How many pipe smokers are also fly fishermen?

I count myself among this number only because I own a fly rod and I have
taken fish with it.  Those opposed to blood sports can soothe their hackles
(pardon the very small fly fishing pun), taking some solace in the knowledge
that I am much more adept at decorating neighboring trees with tiny,
expensive, feathered ornaments and creating remarkably complex knots in 
mid-air than I am at actually catching (and releasing, I might add) fish.  
Growing up in the South, I was reared in the tradition of the cane pole
and worm can rather than the more refined religion of the long rod and
fly.  Some day I shall find a non-smoking fly fisherman, and we will
tutor each other in our respective arts.

I have, by the way, found a very good use for my fishing vest.
I am disorganized by nature, and I frequently find myself fumbling for
matches, a pipe tool, or a pipe cleaner--and often for my pipe itself.
Donning my vest, however, I can outfit myself with a day's supply of
smoking accessories without fear of mislaying anything.

But boy, do people stare at you funny.  Maybe I should lose the hat and
hip waders?  ;^)

Regards,

--
Mark Lathem      
http://www.vvm.com/~mlathem/home.html

[ I'd guess quite a few; fly fishing seems like a good place for a
pipe.  L.L. Bean puts out a wall hanging which is a repro of a 1930s
catalog cover: a gentleman in full fishing regalia (waders, rod and
reel, creel, etc.), who has obviously caught nothing. He is chomping
on a small pipe and scowling at a small boy.  The boy has a stick, a
piece of string, and a full complement of fish. -S. ]


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