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STICKS

When I was around, oh say 8 or    EARLY
9, I and a friend of mine once
got into carrying "staffs"                   You sometimes see amateur
around with us, i.e. sticks.                 day-hikers carrying sticks.
Finding a really worthy stick                I have trouble understanding
(straight, strong, smooth)                   why.  (To poke non-existent
wasn't a trivial problem.                    bears in the nose?)        
                                                                        
I once               Other fads                   But they're also likely 
started              were:                        to have hunting knives 
whittling all        Carrying plastic             and sierra cups on their
the branches         Y shaped boomerangs,         belts.                
from a dead          usually down the back                              
christmas            of our necks, neon           The knife might be useful, 
tree.  Couldn't      wings protruding from        if you somehow got into    
get it smooth        each side.                   a critical survival situation
enough.                                           an hour's walk from the 
                     (clearly we were into        parking lot.          
Mostly these         function over form.)         
sticks were                                       It's not clear that 
used for things      Eating various forms         sierra cups are ever 
like pole-vaulting.  of petfood, e.g.             useful. 
I remember working   parrot grade sunflower               
on using pole        seeds, hamster salt 
vaulting as          spools.  
a long distance      
method of            Shrieking like a 
locomotion,          terradactyl for long
rapidly        	     distance signaling. 
alternating                              
left-right-          Tree-climbing as a     
left.                sport.              


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