OT: TV (was) RE: [at-l] LONGISH, Trail Magic ,etc.

[cballs@mindspring.com (Curtis Balls)]

From: "Jan Leitschuh" <janl2@mindspring.com>
> C -
>
> Yes, alcohol stove easy to make. The aggravating-est part is inserting
the
> two cans into each other.
> You've probably seen this URL. Every type of stove you can imagine:
> http://wings.interfree.it/html/main.html


POSTER'S PREFACE: This is a partial response to part of a private message
to me from Jan, who was kind enough to forward me the Great Alcohol Stove
Link above.  I'm responding to her and to the list simultaneously on this
subject cause if you don't know about the link you oughtta and I'd
appreciate some hep from the hepping crowd.  I trust that Jan won't mind
since I have not intentionally or inadvertently revealed here any of her
innermost thoughts about other list members, assuming she has any, and of
course you all already know how I feel about you.

_________________


Somebody make it stop!   They all look so smart and so hot.  Do I have to
choose just one?  The Robert Crowley Plumber Stove was most attractive, not
just for its simple, elegant design and its apparent first-class
functionality but because when I'm on the Trail and someone asks, "Hey,
what kind of stove is that?"  I will have the pleasure of saying with pride
and authority with a note of the stove cognoscenti in my voice, "Don't you
know? It's the Robert Crowley Plumber Alcohol Stove #2,"  as if to say,
"Top that, you white gasser!"  That'll put the gearheads in their place!

The Shane Graber Stove is attractive because Shane's pages are so well
organized and so well presented that you want to make his stove if for no
other reason than to help him justify spending all that time on putting
together all those instructions.

The Thomas Tveit Rosenlund stove sounds like an exclusive European designer
stove like the Oscar de la Renta Stove or the Versaci Stove.  He's such an
arrogant twit too, comparing his designer house stove directly to our
hard-working, blue collar Shane Graber Stove.  This stove has great snob
appeal.

The Roy Robinson Cat Stove (a.k.a "The Cat Stove"), the editor's favorite.
Is Roy the editor?  I like this stove.  I like these insurrections.  I like
the name of this stove. (If I had a son I'd want him to be named, Roy
Robinson Cat Balls.)  I like everything about this stove. I'm drawn to it
like a moth to an alcohol flame.  What's wrong with it?  I'll bet it
doesn't work as well as the others, right?

I'd build The Don "Photon" Johnston's High Performance Miami Vice Alcohol
Stove but I'll never remember that long name so I wouldn't get to show off
my stove erudition on the Trail. This won't do.  What good is knowledge
about gear if you can't impress others with it?  Besides I don't have a
paper-punch or a sewing needle.  Don Johnston's really high-end web page is
well worth a visit though, great photo of Little Dam Lake in New York,
right on!, and the mpeg links are far out.  Is his middle name really
"Photon"?  His parents must have been 60's hippies.  His diet worries me as
reflected in the materials used:  soda pop, canned chicken, canned sloppy
joe mix, canned tuna salad.  I wonder if he's eating right?  Don't buy
canned tuna salad, it's too easy to make...here's a recipe:

canned light tuna in water
boiled eggs
sweet gherkins or sweet pickle relish
mayonnaise, NOT KRAFT SALAD DRESSING!
chopped scallions (green onions) or vidalia, optional
fresh dill or tarragon or curry depending on preference, optional
chopped pecans and/or a few raisins in place of the gherkins or relish
might be good, especially with the curry.

You decide how much of each of these you need.  WARNING: this is not Trail
food.


Okay, back to stoves.....

The Breck Bowles Permaflate Modified Trangia Stove is hands down the most
literary alcohol stove you will ever encounter.  I found myself so
entertained by this this engineer's story of how to build and use this
stove that I forgot I was reading about a backpacking stove.  Fine writing
about how to do it, build a stove I mean. It's far too complicated for me,
but it sure was fun reading about it. There's enough engineering precision
here to make an engineer's nipples hard.  Breck is obviously a descendant
of Sally Bowles or the reincarnation of Christopher Isherwood.  Is Breck a
girl?  I wonder if he has green fingernails?


The Sgt. Rock Lonely Hearts Cat Stove, otherwise known as the "Paul
McCartney Stove".  This is the Roy Robinson and Dale Evanston stove with
some modifications.  I like the pictures and confirms what I've long
suspected about dogs...they'll eat anything.  Here are the pictures to
prove it.  A cat would never stoop to eating dog food!

I couldn't go on with reading about alcohol stoves because it was becoming
overwhelming.  "Simplify, simplify, simplify" says Thereau but wouldn't one
"simplify" have been adequate?  I think this was a Felixism, no?  I've
decided to start simplifying with stoves but I still can't decided which
one is best.  Any ideas from the backpacker stoving community?

Come on baby light my fire.

Natured Balls