Phil Houtz

There was a great One-Show wining ad for a store going-out-of-business sale that read “Oh Sure, Now You’ll Shop Here.” In an effort to try and avoid winning a similar One-Show Golden Pencil, Borealis Expedition Adventure Resource (BEAR) in Thousand Oaks, CA, just sent out a plea to its mailing list asking for corporate partners,…

Tread Lightly! is some kind of mysterious organization designed to make moronic 4WD enthusiasts (such as yours truly) feel better about ripping up nature. But here’s the best part…as an incentive to join you now have the opportunity win all kinds of cheap crap from China.

  No, we’re not talking about letting her rip. We’re talking about Treehugger’s latest survey: is a frog shaped can-smasher bad design because it teaches kids to stomp toads. Geez, Treehugger. Give kids some credit. This thing is bad design because you can just as easily smash cans with your forehead.

If I’m going to blow out my ACL I’d sooner do it at Mammoth than in my hallway next to the bathroom. Strap these babies on your shoes and go speed-skating in your rumpus room! Turn your stairs into a black diamond run! FunSlides via GetOutdoors. (Maybe not as much fun as these🙂

Well, we survived the South Fork of the American River. Five adults, fifteen high school kids, three rubber rafts and a mayonnaise jar full of Ritalin…it just doesn’t get any better than that. On Day One we put in at Henningsen-Lotus park. Our guide was Gordy Ainsleigh, something of a local hero in those parts…

I really should be working on the kitchen cabinets or doing the 30,000 mile axle service on my Jeep. I need to be packing for our rafting trip on Monday. And a new freelance project just showed up in my inbox. So what do I do? What any red-blooded American man would do. I Simpsonized…

Made in the fashion of Damascus swords (the exact technique of pounding, cooling and folding has been lost for over 200 years), this Son of Pry thing will outlast any multi-tool in your gear shed. Of course, $160 will buy you a lot of Swiss Army Knives. Then again, if you had a Son of…

Tom, dude, this one’s for you.  The Church of the Latter-Day Dude Myself, I live and die by Duderonomy 1:3 Always write checks whenever possible, as your cash is limited and you never know when you might have to pay off roving bands of heathen Nihilists.

Words cannot express how badly I want a pair of these Vibram Five Fingers sandals when I head off for the American River next week. Of course, then I would need a hat like this:

Apocalypse Now as told by Winnie the Pooh.

I found the ashtray above in a Motel 6 in Big Bear, California–similar to the double message Spanish ashtray posted by BoingBoing’s Mark Frauenfelder. I have to point out that we found our ashtray in a nonsmoking room. The sticker was stuck to the outside of the bottom, where I supposed someone thought it would…

Lynn from NatureShutterbug kindly suggested fish oil for my aching knees. At my friendly local grocer I found a product that advertised “NO FISH BURPS.” Solving a problem I never knew I had. What they don’t tell you on the label is that the gelcaps are tough as footballs and each one is roughly the…

Here it is, a week after my Extreme Gardening adventure with Habitat Works, and my knees are swollen to the size of watermelons, screaming with pain. What’s up with that? It could be that my seatpost is too low on my Comfort Bike, wreaking howling havoc in my hinges. I’ll have to check that out…