thundercatzr
01-15-2002, 08:57 AM
thanks to all of us, that Steward fellow posted a very good apology:
Unconditional surrender
Hell knows no fury like a snowmobiler scorned
By HARTLEY STEWARD -- Toronto Sun
Wow! I must have been in some foul mood last week. On Friday, I ranted on about the snowmobile to such an extent you might have thought I was talking about the devil himself. I called snowmobiles all manner of nasty things and wasn't that kind to the people who ride them, either. In fact, I was downright rude.
It was an intemperate piece that unfairly characterized the snowmobile crowd as a bunch of louts and I have no problem apologizing to them.
I could also have been sentenced to 30 days for overwriting. I used pretty well all the loaded adjectives at my disposal, overstating almost everything to make my points.
I made my points, for sure, but the readers have made theirs as well.
Except when I periodically write about the amazing soup diet, I don't think I've received more mail. Mostly e-mail. Snowmobilers certainly own computers and know how to use them. They also know how to put a guy in his place.
I was called everything from an incompetent journalist to a dumb ####### who needs to get a life. Both could well be true. My ancestry was questioned in some considerable depth and I was warned to stay off the snowmobile trails if I wanted to stay healthy.
But not everyone ranted back at me in the fashion I ranted at them.
Most wanted me to know that many small businesses - restaurants, lodges and resorts, for instance - just could not afford to stay in business over the winter if they were not be accessible to the snowmobile crowd.
BIG MONEY
That's true, of course. The money generated by the sport in North America is measured in billions. In my neck of the woods, I know several restaurateurs who admit they depend for their very existence on the patronage of the snowmobile crowd.
But a more interesting refrain ran through many, if not most, of the letters.
Those who use snowmobiles for excursion deep into the countryside wanted me to understand that the machines do not frighten wild or domestic animals. I felt - apparently mistakenly - that the noise of a snowmobile would surely send the deer and moose into panic.
Indeed, I'm informed the opposite is true. A silent trekker on snowshoes or cross-country skis will quickly scare off deer, moose and other wild animals while a snowmobile, which can be heard coming for miles, does not bother the wildlife.
One retired logger wrote of running his noisy chain saw for hours in the woods during logging operations. He wrote that the wild animals, out of curiosity, he supposed, gathered to watch him. The noise didn't frighten them a bit, but the minute he turned off the chain saw they ran for cover.
Several snowmobilers reiterated this point and chastised me for my ignorance. Consider me chastised and much better informed.
"Why do you think," one couple asked, "hunting is not allowed from a snowmobile?"
Some of my critics were downright poetic when writing about the glories of their hobby. They described the beauty of the wild with great flair and sensitivity and talked about the wonders of reaching places deep in the countryside no one else had seen.
"The silence and the scenery are awesome," one man wrote. "Far from doing anything to harm the landscape, I want only to share it with the animals. I would do nothing to hurt the wilderness."
One letter writer pitied me because I would never know, due to my bias against snowmobiles, the joys of a solitary ride by moonlight through the snow and trees.
Many admitted some snowmobilers were, indeed, the sort of louts I singled out in the column. But all insisted they were not in the majority and the snowmobile community was getting better every year at policing its own.
One thing is certain. No group is more passionate about its hobby or more articulate in its defence than the snowmobiler.
----------------------------------------------
Good work gang! *We obviously came across as the cut above which we are. *The Ottawa Sun even printed my letter in their "Letters to the Editor" today so everyone knows how we feel.
Thumbs up to everyone. *Ride on!!!
Unconditional surrender
Hell knows no fury like a snowmobiler scorned
By HARTLEY STEWARD -- Toronto Sun
Wow! I must have been in some foul mood last week. On Friday, I ranted on about the snowmobile to such an extent you might have thought I was talking about the devil himself. I called snowmobiles all manner of nasty things and wasn't that kind to the people who ride them, either. In fact, I was downright rude.
It was an intemperate piece that unfairly characterized the snowmobile crowd as a bunch of louts and I have no problem apologizing to them.
I could also have been sentenced to 30 days for overwriting. I used pretty well all the loaded adjectives at my disposal, overstating almost everything to make my points.
I made my points, for sure, but the readers have made theirs as well.
Except when I periodically write about the amazing soup diet, I don't think I've received more mail. Mostly e-mail. Snowmobilers certainly own computers and know how to use them. They also know how to put a guy in his place.
I was called everything from an incompetent journalist to a dumb ####### who needs to get a life. Both could well be true. My ancestry was questioned in some considerable depth and I was warned to stay off the snowmobile trails if I wanted to stay healthy.
But not everyone ranted back at me in the fashion I ranted at them.
Most wanted me to know that many small businesses - restaurants, lodges and resorts, for instance - just could not afford to stay in business over the winter if they were not be accessible to the snowmobile crowd.
BIG MONEY
That's true, of course. The money generated by the sport in North America is measured in billions. In my neck of the woods, I know several restaurateurs who admit they depend for their very existence on the patronage of the snowmobile crowd.
But a more interesting refrain ran through many, if not most, of the letters.
Those who use snowmobiles for excursion deep into the countryside wanted me to understand that the machines do not frighten wild or domestic animals. I felt - apparently mistakenly - that the noise of a snowmobile would surely send the deer and moose into panic.
Indeed, I'm informed the opposite is true. A silent trekker on snowshoes or cross-country skis will quickly scare off deer, moose and other wild animals while a snowmobile, which can be heard coming for miles, does not bother the wildlife.
One retired logger wrote of running his noisy chain saw for hours in the woods during logging operations. He wrote that the wild animals, out of curiosity, he supposed, gathered to watch him. The noise didn't frighten them a bit, but the minute he turned off the chain saw they ran for cover.
Several snowmobilers reiterated this point and chastised me for my ignorance. Consider me chastised and much better informed.
"Why do you think," one couple asked, "hunting is not allowed from a snowmobile?"
Some of my critics were downright poetic when writing about the glories of their hobby. They described the beauty of the wild with great flair and sensitivity and talked about the wonders of reaching places deep in the countryside no one else had seen.
"The silence and the scenery are awesome," one man wrote. "Far from doing anything to harm the landscape, I want only to share it with the animals. I would do nothing to hurt the wilderness."
One letter writer pitied me because I would never know, due to my bias against snowmobiles, the joys of a solitary ride by moonlight through the snow and trees.
Many admitted some snowmobilers were, indeed, the sort of louts I singled out in the column. But all insisted they were not in the majority and the snowmobile community was getting better every year at policing its own.
One thing is certain. No group is more passionate about its hobby or more articulate in its defence than the snowmobiler.
----------------------------------------------
Good work gang! *We obviously came across as the cut above which we are. *The Ottawa Sun even printed my letter in their "Letters to the Editor" today so everyone knows how we feel.
Thumbs up to everyone. *Ride on!!!