For worse or for worse, Washington is an extremely litigious town, with something like 3 out of every 2 Washington professionals possessing a law degree. Nowhere is this more evident than in the substance and tone of the Ice Skating Information Line for the C&O Canal — (301) 767-3707. I rang it this morning, and while I was ultimately informed that ice skating opportunities there potentially do exist, presumably were Washington located in Alaska, the overwhelming portion of content and tenor of the recorded message suggested that the endeavor was, fundamentally, frought with peril. It was yet another instance of lawyering all the fun out of life.
“Skating on naturally frozen surfaces can be extremely dangerous” the caller of the Ice Skating Information Line is informed early on . . . ”Skaters should not skate alone” . . . “Professional rescue personnel may not be available” to assist the potentially submerged . . . and on and on and on. How about relating the bloody ice thickness at Angler’s Inn, oh bureaucratic master of liability and the obvious?
The Canal’s ice conditions hotline ultimately is useless (it was not always thus), as it never offers a definitive yea or nay on safe conditions.
Once upon a time, civilization, with an eye toward recreating outdoors in winter, reacted to a solid week of sub-freezing temperatures with prudence and balanced judgment and a much-missed joie de vie: youngsters for instance could independently and accurately verify a body of water’s ice thickness without the intrusion of any government bureaucrat. Proof of which is found in the ranks of the National Hockey League. And among the millions of adults who survived youth recreating outdoors in the upper Midwest and New England. But to listen to our government recordings of the C&O Canal’s condition, those people must be X-game extremists/Russian Roulette radicals.
So I’ll give it to you without any condescending paternalism: if you can blow off work this afternoon it’s worth the would-be skater’s look along the Canal’s shallower stretches, but skating is prohibited from Angler’s Inn upstream to Great Falls, where water depths approach 40 feet.
Happy recreating.
4 Comments
I spent the last 2 days on the Canal with my boys just north of Lock 7. Great time to be had and if the ice can hold my 280+ LBS it can hold yours! I had a blast of a time playing pond hockey.
I represent all disparaging remarks directed at my chosen profession
I recall many, many moons ago playing some pond hockey on a few choicely crisp days when conditions finally presented, at a park in a little town called Olney, without any such spooky warnings.
Most of us couldn’t skate at that elementary school age, but still shuffled along on galoshes.
It’s a very rare occasion when one can skate outside on frozen water in the DC metro area, and should definitely not be wasted!
Come the revolution, lawyers will be first against the wall! But it is our Washington weather that’s to blame. In the next couple of days, it will be nearly 50 degrees. I would be distressed to see anyone, especially young children, sacrificed to the gods of pond (or canal) hockey in this uncertain weather, and happily volunteer to stand by with grappling hook, my walking frame, a flask and a small boat.
But speaking of joie de vie, it seems that’s an element that’s gone out of our boys’ game lately. Would you care to comment? Is Backie not attending the All-stars young peoples’ melee because he’s tired and depressed? I thought he and Ovie were in tight. Our Coach is no longer wondering if he’s dreaming, he’s downright(?) critical. Ovie has yet to offer an infomercial featuring a new Russian word (remember ‘Strite’ [phonetic]) and you never see him lurching toward the net like a drunken sailor with a maniacal grin anymore. He skates now like a mean hitting machine. Green has been overlooked again for the so-called all stars game, though he still manages to twinkle when you say hello to him at the Front Page. Fedorov recovering, almost playing all by himself with an intensity that may get him to goal 500 but will it carry the team, which is what he really wants, to another Cup? Sad to think him almost done. The real season begins in a few days, and it will only get more grim from here on. Or grimmer, as the case may be. OFB, what can fans do to help? (besides go to the games, which we do do now, but it no longer seems enough). Hooks, flasks and small boats won’t be enough either. The ice is melting. Will we endure?
I’m not saying it’s not an overly litigious society. But, sometimes the lawyers do have a point.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/01/AR2008040102203.html
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