2019 Offseason Stream of Unconsciousness

[847badgerfan]

I'd rather have my finger and toe nails plucked out, one by one, than go ice fishing. It would have the same effect on my fingers and toes anyway.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not interested in luxury ice fishing, where a mobile hotel room is placed on the ice. But sitting on a bucket or in/outside a particle board shanty is awesome. Maybe calling it meditative is too crunchy, but there is something pleasant about being left alone to your thoughts with cold nipping your cheeks.

If you don't have the right jacket, pants, and boots to be warm, don't go though. No one likes to be cold. 

Well geared ice fishers are never cold.

[Cincydawg]

I was probably 20 before I realized that skiing could also be done on snow.

Fishing for ice doesn't sound appealing to me.

[MrNubbz]

I'd rather have my finger and toe nails plucked out, one by one, than go ice fishing. It would have the same effect on my fingers and toes anyway.

Really,some of the best fish(Walleye/Perch) have come thru the ice 4-5 miles off shore on Erie.Doesn't get any fresher.Been over a decade however we sold our place and my friends sold their snowmobiles/ATVs.Prolly could get back into it but not worth the expense if your buddies aren't with you - for safety reasons also

[MarqHusker]

The first time I was ever intoxicated was while ice fishing.   It was also 8th grade.  No correlation I'm sure.

[Anonymous Coward]

Fishing for ice doesn't sound appealing to me.

I left off that I've never even caught anything except mud puppies. I'm seriously bad. But anyone would like ice fishing anyway if they had my dad and that was the day's activity.

[Anonymous Coward]

Really,some of the best fish(Walleye/Perch) have come thru the ice 4-5 miles off shore on Erie.Doesn't get any fresher.Been over a decade however we sold our place and my friends sold their snowmobiles/ATVs.Prolly could get back into it but not worth the expense if your buddies aren't with you - for safety reasons also

I'm from the waterway connecting Huron and Erie. There's a bay in Lake St. Clair that'll fill up with 100+ trucks once the ice hits 8 inches. Breakthroughs are obviously rare or they wouldn't do it, but still it's kind of spooky. We always just walked out with a sled.

[GopherRock]

The first time I was ever intoxicated was while ice fishing.   It was also 8th grade.  No correlation I'm sure.

I think a 750 of a distilled beverage is mandatory in ice fishing gear kits.

[MrNubbz]

Breakthroughs are obviously rare or they wouldn't do it, but still it's kind of spooky. We always just walked out with a sled.

Ya the ice though thick seems to always be cracking,groaning,gnashing.And it always seems to happen when you're walking like you've triggered a split.You're right spooky stuff.I know if stuck on a breakaway ice flow you'll pay handsomely if the Coast Guard sends choppers.For quite some time many outfitters-guides have been using air boats which are perfect even if the ice gives way they can skim across either surface

[Anonymous Coward]

Ya the ice though thick seems to always be cracking,groaning,gnashing.And it always seems to happen when you're walking like you've triggered a split.You're right spooky stuff.I know if stuck on a breakaway ice flow you'll pay handsomely if the Coast Guard sends choppers.For quite some time many outfitters-guides have been using air boats which are perfect even if the ice gives way they can skim across either surface

Growing up, our house was on a small island in that area. 3 sides were canals and the last was the St. Clair River running between Huron and Erie. Usually the river current was too much for the canals to freeze, but after cold storms, the river would clog with icebergs from Lake Huron, the river would stop, and the canals would actually freeze like glass. That thing cracked and groaned like none other. Even worse when the coast guard icebreakers would try to open up lanes through the icebergs for commerce (it's a major throughway for oceanliners). When that happened, the boat waves would cause the canal ice to go up and down and inch or two and it'd sound like horror film background music. Scary, but eventually you'd get used to it and stop letting it disrupt your ice fishing or hockey game.
Your other point is good too. If a person's car falls through, and we assume they survive unscathed, the financials are steep. The car has to be wrenched out, at cost to owner. And insurance won't cover anything if your car is a half-mile out and falls through lake ice.

[MrNubbz]

A few years back i saw these ice flows creeping up and slowly grinding & punishing lakeside cabins - that might have been on Lake St Clair or maybe Michigan/Huron

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you know which town that was?

And yes, ice flows are brutal and unforgiving. In the areas where zoning laws still permit people with riverfront property to extend a pier 100y or so to a boat house, it's amazing how many people still drive wood pylons into the ground. It's cheaper than steel, sure, but those ones last at least a hundred years less long. Ice bergs chop them at the knees and eventually the whole thing craters.

[CWSooner]

Howdy pal. I think much of this depends on the major, much as AC posted above. You may be able to sleepwalk through some majors. This I do not doubt one bit.

Hey, Badge.  The Big Ten board is, as it was on CFN, a very busy and interesting one.
Yeah, I'd say that this problem is way more prevalent away from math, engineering, and the hard sciences.
Here's something written in light of the admissions scandal by a nationally known commentator:

"After I was admitted to Harvard Law School, I attended orientation. Our 500-strong class was gathered in Memorial Hall, in historic Sanders Theater, where then-Dean Elena Kagan (now Supreme Court Justice) spoke to us. She informed us that the competition was over – we were in! No need to worry about the stuff we’d seen in The Paper Chase – we were all going to leave with degrees and jobs. Not just that – as graduates of Harvard Law, we were destined to rule the universe. She informed us of how many alumni were in the Senate, how many in Congress, how many on the Supreme Court. The battle was over upon our acceptance to the institution."

[Anonymous Coward]

What that message from Kagan means depends a lot on the attitudes of the person reading it. 

We were told the same thing when we matriculated into medical school. I bet they say the same to every entering law, dental, and business student, too. Which are all examples of this "maybe bad or lazy" message being paired with serious educating. And that doesn't have to be a paradox. It can just be a distinction that an important step is over. Or a signal that "typically everyone who gets this far is serious and you're one of them, so you're set."  Either way, we can assure ourselves that even though I received this message from Dean Paz at a first year "white coat ceremony" and was told "P = MD," as in "pass and you're a doctor," which was all true and that almost everyone graduated, getting an M.D. still took some doing. That the message doesn't (have to) contradict real education.