Thursday, January 3, 2008

Polar Bears or lemmings ?

Please tell me that I am not the only one who thinks these Polar Bear Club lemmings are one sandwich short of a picnic. Swimming in the Atlantic Ocean in January off Coney Island may not be the dumbest thing on earth but it's close.

Check this out Here are the "rules"... and of course I have a few comments. - I do love their website "http://www.freezinforareason.com/" but that animal on there looks more like a moose than a polar bear to me

-Participants must raise a minimum of $100 in pledges. - At least they are raising money for charity in this case a kids camp Camp Sunshine
-No Pushing! All participants must enter the water of their own volition. Please do not enter the water until asked to do so. - As if we didn't all learn this in kindergarten
-Participants will plunge their willing bodies into the water. The entire body must be submerged. - Well I guess in for a penny in for a pound
-No dry or wetsuits. Participants may smear their bodies with a liberal coating of bear fat. Note: This may negatively impact your social standing. - This has to be my favorite - Bear fat? are you freaking kidding me? I guess it would have a negative impact on your social standing. And just how do you get this bear fat in the first place in a very bear infested place like New York City? Something tells me I don't want to know. THIS is the rule that shows these folks have lost total touch with reality wetsuits are bad but bear fat well that's just fine... YIKES!
-No 'endurance' contests will be permitted. Participants must jump in and out. Yelling is optional. - I think this would be more fun if yelling was forbidden... Let's see how many of these lemmings would do this if they couldn't holler about it.
-Prizes will be awarded to the top fundraisers and costume contest winners. - How come none of the pictures I have seen show these "costumes"? They must have all been covering themselves with that bear fat. (YUCK) That actually might be mildly amusing.



So is anyone else with me or am I the one losing it? I think this is simply a case of people acting like lemmings. One dude did this a long time ago and others followed along. They don't really like doing this. NO ONE enjoys swimming in near frigid water. And just like lemmings this could lead to big trouble for the participants. (I refer you back to rule #2) If you don't believe me just remember back to George Costanza from Seinfeld in the "shrinkage" episode.

-Shane (doc)

7 comments:

Jay said...

What a bunch of dumb asses.

Kind of like those idiots who stand in the stands of football games in Green Bay in January with no shirts on.

Anonymous said...

Here's the thing - I actually did this last December '06 - for charity of course. And, it did matter that it happened to be a 55 degree day - but the water, none-the-less, was freaking COLD! You could have chopped off my shin and I would not have known it. Crazy, yes, but powerful? You bet'cha! There's just something about being able to say you jumped in the ocean in December! Now, don't at all ask me to bungee jump...

EC said...

I have never understood these people. Humans spent thousands of years finding ways to stay warm, and them dummies want to experience cold that makes your balls shrink to peanuts and your nips cut diamonds.

Why not take the next step and bunjee into a volcano?

Anonymous said...

Lets encourage these folks to go cliff diving next! After a while these 'Polar Bears' will then become extinct.

Anonymous said...

Jay - I agree about those idiots at football games too. Why freeze yourself to show your team loyalty? And alcohol will NOT warm you up no matter what you think.

Christine - You actually did this? Are you crazy? To each his own but my idea of power is being able to say I DIDN'T jump into the freezing cold water in December but giggled at the lemmings that did. THATS powerful! ;-)

RadioFree G - I agree with you too. I think it's called retrograde evolution or something...

Mt. Cat - BWAAHAHAHAAHAAA - That is hilarious! I should have thought of that with my whole lemmings anaolgy.

CarmenSinCity said...

Yupp - they are CRAZY for sure. I'll be watching the Wire this Sunday!!! It's really cool to watch that show and recognize a lot of the places since I'm from Baltimore!!!!!

Anonymous said...

I would do it Doc but then again I did run naked for 3.1 miles in September of 2005.

But that is just me.