Hi y'all, On Tue, 25 Jan 2000 19:20:36 -0500 Larry Bliven wrote <<I agree, Paddler mag seems to be improving quite well. Seems like for the past couple of years, they have done a fine job of 'copying' the buyers guide that Canoe & Kayak puts out each fall.>> In the Sept/Oct issue of Paddler, the magazine printed some verbal diarrhea from John Caveman Gray without doing the slightest bit of research. In the piece titled "Sea Canoe Battles Corruption" Mr. Gray accused the former Director, the former Expedition Director, and me of "Cooperation with the mafia to force Sea Canoe out of its last island of operation". Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. None of us have the time nor interest in doing anything with any so-called 'mafia' and we certainly don't have any interest in going anywhere near the sea caves that Sea Canoe is responsible to some degree in exploiting. We've all got lives! The caves are a zoo. Dozens of companies scrum to get in the caves. It's hardly a natural experience. Mr. Gray didn't do his homework. Anyone who knows anything about how business takes place here would have seen the outcome. Thus, another pristine environment falls to mass tourism thanks in large part to Mr. Gray. Once Eugene Buchanan and Tom Bie realized there error in judgement, they started apologizing to us. They agreed to print a letter that we wrote describing how Mr. Gray's extremely abusive personality has been a constant thorn in the sides of everyone in the padding industry here... both Thai and Westerners. They also agreed to print a retraction. They printed our letter (in the next issue), but failed to print the retraction. By not printing the retraction, they have not done what they agreed to do and our letter doesn't carry near the impact that it should. So, if you want responsible journalism and accuracy, I would drop Paddler Magazine and switch over to Canoe & Kayak. BTW, I just read an article written by Mr. Gray for Thai Airway's in-flight magazine. In it, he claims to have been paddling for 20 years. Hmmm, let's see, as I recall I started paddling 6 to 7 years before he did. But now, he's somehow managed to 'gain' on me to be within 2 years. In other words Paddlewisers, don't believe everything you read. Larry also wrote: <<who is wondering why he gets both magazines. if they are just going to copy each other, why shouldn't I save a tree and drop one.>> I wonder why we should buy any paddling magazines since they seem to put most of the articles on-line! Cheers, Dave, mafia gangster Dave Williams, Director dave_at_paddleasia.com http://paddleasia.com *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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