don't be food.

Via Tam, we get the story of a woman who refused to let her husband of almost 50 years become cougar chow.

Kudos to her, but part of me has to wonder why two "experienced hikers" were traipsing around in known mountain lion country without so much as a pocket knife. it's probably the same reason why people don't carry any means of self-protection in known hoodlum cities...the "it can't happen to me" syndrome. People convince themselves that they move in special portable crime-free bubbles, and carrying anything suitable for self-defense would interfere with the process of denial because it would be an acknowledgment of the threat.

I had a discussion with my ex once where she questioned my sanity for wanting to carry a gun for protection. "This is Knoxville," she said, rolling her eyes.

Of course, crime doesn't happen in Knoxville, or does it?

As I've told her back then, it's not the odds that bother me, it's what's at stake.