Symphonic_Nightmare

Long ago...

Boy scout fishing trip. One of the kids (I was also a kid at the time but not as young as some of the other boys) hooked a duck. The hook was too close to the surface and the bait was bread. The hook punched clean through leaving the hook barb on the outside of the bill of a big male. It took three of us to hold the duck long enough to clip the barbed end off the hook.

The duck wasn't having any of it. You'd think we'd thrown capsaicin on its anus or something, but to be fair it did have a barbed shiv of metal through its mouth. It started out by just pulling and pulling on the line, but shockingly the line didn't give (we later learned it was something ridiculous like 30lb test). The kid who'd hooked the duck was pulled right off his feet and lost his grip on the pole, so we had to run and retrieve the pole as the duck was making back for open water. I arrived second and it wasn't until the third person made it that we could get the duck's wings under control. At first I thought we were going to break the poor thing, but then my view of the world dissolved into this malestrom of white feathers and noise and pain and suddenly it was all I could do to hold on. Shockingly, not a one of us was bitten (billed?) during the incident. In the end, everyone was alright with bruises being the main marks of the incident; except for the boy who'd originally hooked the duck. He was a little traumatized by it all. I don't recall seeing him on the next fishing trip.

Anyone who has ever been buffeted by the wings of a pissed off, normal sized duck would likely agree with you. It's a little like being rapidly struck with fleshy hammers.

Heh, hate to steal any thunder. I don't want the focus to shift from your awesome efforts.

In this discussion, there's a difference between access to a creative work (which can be subjective) and access to a fundamental methodology that prevents any innovation by tying up necessary processes to achieve an end result (like patenting a circle and restricting anyone else from using your shape for a wheel).

Conversations like the current one are more about the latter than the former.

Glad you enjoyed it. Typing it was way more fun than the experience itself. I was SURE that one of us was going to take the hook in the eye at some point during the fight.