Outdoors

Pregnant snowmobiler breaks through ice, swims to safety

Filed under: Outdoors

It's cold, yes. It's freezing, to be sure. But it's not quite freezing enough, as a pregnant Wisconsin woman and her companion discovered to their shivering chagrin.

The snowmobile they were driving on the Wolf River went through the ice and -- this is the kicker -- they had to swim 50 yards to safety in bone-chilling water. I just got done living on a tropical island for a year. I know people there that couldn't swim 50 yards in warm water that are not, as this individual is, six months along with child.

Here's the part of the story that I'm going to try, and fail, to let pass without comment.

"Jennifer Pliska of Stevens Point and Shaun Wenzel of Fremont had to swim about 50 yards to get help after their 2001 Ski Doo snowmobile went through the ice at 2:59 a.m. Sunday."

As many of us are well aware, 3 o'clock in the a.m. isn't actually early Sunday morning -- that's late Saturday night. And that's often when things like "I'm sure the river's frozen, let's take a wee hours snowmobile jaunt" start to sound reasonable. Moral: resist such irrationality, or end up swimming surrounded by ice floes.

Although if you're hearty enough to make that swim, I'm sure the cold just makes you paddle faster.

[Tip o' the fur-lined cap to the Obscure Store.]

Posted by Jeff Shaw at December 4, 2007 7:42 PM | Comments (0)

 

Woman Kills Albino Deer: Brother Ali Taken Into Protective Custody

Filed under: Outdoors

During the hunting opener last weekend, Mary Rakotz of Avon shot an extremely rare albino deer. She felled the 6 point buck in Mille Lacs county, and was immediately hailed in local media as "the lady who shot that thing that looks like a photo negative of a real deer."

Albino deer are so uncommon that it's actually illegal to hunt them in at least seven states. If you see one, and you're unfortunate enough not to have a camera, really the only choice is to squeeze some hot lead into it.

According to the WCCO report:

She said it was thrilling to see the rare animal, but 100 times more exciting to be able to actually take it home.

"Take it home," in the sense of "I don't have enough room to mount it in my house so I'm going to try to sell it to Cabela's."

For further comment, we go to Hank Spim:

In all seriousness, I'm not anti-hunting at all. But if you see something that unusual, and your first impulse is to blast it, it might be time to consider your priorities. Especially if the thing is about as threatening as Bunnicula.

Besides, if we're just going to start shooting at pasty white things with cloven hooves, somebody oughtta up the Secret Service detail on Dick Cheney.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at November 7, 2007 7:35 PM | Comments (1)