The Purloined Letter
I saw the comment about the folding kayaks as being something new. Not in our family, they aren't! Years and years ago, we built "carrycrafts" as Boyscout projects. These were exactly as identified in your referance, a skin of thick, canvas over an internal frame that defines the shape.
Since these were Boyscout projects, we never gave one thought to marketing them commercially. They glide though very shallow water, and can be moved easily. Since they present more surface area than a standard Kayak, they literally sit on the water. Lots of fun.
GTW
I never saw "Son of Lassie," but I remember seeing the "Lassie" TV show when I was a kid. I could never stand to watch the last five minutes, which always involved some horrible cliff hanger. Gramps would be buried under a pile of rubble with the rest of the family gone into town; or Timmy would have fallen in a ravine, or well, or be hanging by a branch over the Grand Canyon. Uhhh..... I would hide behind the couch and shout to my sister and brother, "What's happening now?" each time the music got louder and more tense.
Still today when I can't bear to look during a scary moment in a movie or TV show, I always think of Lassie, and feel that it (Lassie) was probably worse.
... cont. ...
I'm glad Sophie made it back in the boat and didn't fall in and have to dog paddle out of a spiralling whirlpool that dragged her down down down. I'm glad that you and your kayak didn't drifting inexorably toward a cataract, with brave Sophie having to run for help 12 miles back up the road (where you had rented the kayak). I'm glad that you didn't hit white water rapids, put a hole in your kayak, and sink to the bottom, with only Sophie keeping you afloat by pulling on the life-line you had thrown her (meanwhile your foot gets wedged between two rocks and you've already gone under for the third count).
... cont. ...
I'm glad that Sugar Creek isn't populated by flesh-eating piranha, and when you run aground on a little island, which is quickly becoming submerged, Sophie would have to bravely swim to the bank while fighting off piranha to the left and right and all below, and then search for a fallen branch big enough to throw across the breech so you could climb over, a branch so long and so heavy that it would take what seemed like hours to drag it back to the creek. And then to make the bridge, she would have to dive back into the piranha-infested water while pulling the branch with her mouth, and so she could no longer fight off the piranha in their feeding frenzy. She would just have to paddle really fast and hard.
Meanwhile, a thunderstorm rolls in with funnel clouds, and your car keys have fallen out of the kayak and now lie on the bottom of the creek right near where your foot is wedged. You don't notice.
Good lord, Joe. Have I ever told you how neurotic you are? ;p
Btw, Sophie responds now to "TIMMY'S IN THE WELL!" by searching frantically for one of her stuffed toys. Of course once she's found one, she thrashes it in a frenzy. Poor Timmy.
All this talk about Lassie resonates with me, because coincidentally, last night (sleepless and surfing) I wandered across the Houston collie rescue association, at www.houstoncollierescue.org/dogs ... I got weepy at the sight of all those beautiful collies wanting homes. Is there any dog more noble & lovely than a collie? Not for those of us raised on Lassie and Albert Payson Terhune's Lad books.
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