Originally Posted by
Roger Feeley
This thread reminded me of an old story from my youth.
I grew up in Topeka, KS. My best friend was the son of the KS state budget director so I got to know a few people high up in government. One of those was a fellow named Roy Freeland, head of the KS Fish and Game Commission. He was an able executive and generally well liked. He was also an expert fisherman. He was one of those guys who would invite 100 people over for a fish fry and catch the fish that morning. Of course he had a couple of advantages. Being the big cheese, limits didn't apply. He also was plugged into his wardens who would tell him where the fish were biting.
I should also mention two more bits of background.
1. Roy didn't always use common sense. I remember once him throwing out the anchor without tying the painter to the boat.
2. This was a time when we all burnt our trash. Roy had a drum of some sort about the height of a 55 gallon drum but skinnier.
It was one of those days. He had gone out in the morning to catch the fish for about 30 people coming over for dinner. He cleaned the fish at his house and had a bucketload of fish heads and guts. So he takes the fish heads and guts out to his incinerator. Looking at the bucket, he knows that they won't burn so he puts a bunch of newspaper in the barrel. he dumps the fish heads and guts into the barrel. He pours a gallon of gasoline over the fish heads and guts. Then he decides he needs more newspaper. That meant another gallon of gasoline.
Well, what Roy had built was a cannon. He touched a match to the air hole at the bottom, the gasoline exploded and launched fish heads and guts far and wide.