Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Why do meaningless threads go on the longest?.....

'Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway'....
Some wisdom from The Duke.

And now this meaningless thread is suddenly turning meaningful....

Just because I own a. 270 and everybody knows its the best all around cartridge....

Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.

Misquotation. The first half of this quotation is a misquotation from Thoreau's Walden:

�The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.�

Misattribution. Second half of this quotation is misattributed to Thoreau and may be a misquotation or misremembering of Oliver Wendell Holmes' (1809-1894) "The Voiceless":

Alas for those that never sing,
But die with all their music in them.

http://www.walden.org/Library/Quotations/The_Henry_D._Thoreau_Mis-Quotation_Page

Most thread authors and repliers aren't looking for answers but affirmation hence the degradation into long defense of such.

That and people like me who don't read the whole thread and just blurt out their gut reaction from the title.

Alternatively, you can have so much fun that eventually it gets too painful to do what you once could......but then you already know, so you wish you still could, a pain greater, in my opinion, than not knowing what you're missing. Pain is good!

Sounds like Better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.

Better to have Lived and died than to have lived forever?


Like Klik says, try and stretch it out for the long haul but still have a little fun.

And [bleep] money......grin

To each his own, but personally, I could not disagree more. There are many, many things I can no longer do that I once did. But I would not trade the experiences for the world. I used to run like the wind where now walking is difficult. I look back very fondly on those days and even individual experiences of running. I can no longer afford to travel to foreign lands, but I remember my trips to Europe in my younger days and would not change a thing (except to go again and take my wife if I could afford it). Today there are things I wish I could do and places I wish I could travel, but at least I have fond memories of previous experiences to ponder in my old age.

But who gives a chit? My life and experiences are all meaningless to anyone but me.

If you think you're disagreeing, you're only dancing on one edge of the two-edged blade. As you quoted, "pain is good".

Thats the key right there Sammo....

And fun is the key. The pivotal point. The crux. The important thing. The nexus. Number one. The main.

"Tis apples and oranges, unless the words all rind."

Interesting social experiment John.
You have created a meaningless thread about meanigless threads going on forever and in the process started a thread that is going on longer than most. Do you take something from this?

This thread reminds me of the very successful TV show about nothing: "Seinfeld". The episodes are still funny, even after seeing them many times. I think "fun" is an important ingredient in almost everything. Even meaningless threads can be quite a bit of fun.

Excerpt from the song, King of Nothing
Lyrics and music by James Seals, 1970

When I was 17,
I dreamed of being king,
And having everything I wanted.

But that was long ago, and
My dreams did not unfold, so
I'm still the King of Nothing.

Almost got into trouble (in the Navy) for writing (inspired by the example set by Chief MacIndoe) that a first-class bo's'n knows a little about everything and every day learns more and more about less and less, until he knows everything about nothing � then he's a chief.

Somebody snitched that "Li'l Epsom" cartoon and pinned it up on the bulletin board.

Luckily, I saw it there before MacIndoe did.

Guess I'm pretty slow on the uptake.

And so on and so on................

Anyone that's ever shot in competition will appreciate the truth of this:

"Every shot makes somebody happy."

Good one, Al.

I like this one, too.


"There is no target so big or so close that I cannot miss it!"


I certainly am a living, walking testimony to the truth of that statement. It's amazing what I can miss ... sometimes I surprise even myself. And then, suddenly, I show genius and hit stuff that is well-neigh impossible. GO FIGGER.

Your buddy Steve

PS. Karen's good. Says HI and sends a hug. Me too.