I for one, am thankful for the advances in outdoor gear as I am one of those unfortunate few who can't wear wool. As soon as I put on anything made of wool, it feels like I have a million needles penetrating my skin and the longer I leave it on, the worse it gets.

As far as all the other stuff on the shelves these days, some of it is good, but a lot of it is marketed to yuppies who want to buy their way to proficiency rather than work for it. As a favor, I take a few of my wife's yuppie friends fishing once in a while and am sometimes shocked at their pricey equipment and monster tackle boxes crammed full of lures, fish scents, etc.. Of course everyone of them can be easily out-fished by a farm boy using his dad's Zebco 33.

OK, my rant is over and maybe I got a little off topic, but I must say that I feel much better now.