Where would we be without wacky, the fuel that runs the news business? Never a "d'oh" moment? Perish the thought.
Isn't that right, Plaxico Burress, Rod Blagojevich and Roger Clemens?
As we steel ourselves for the plunge into 2009, when we'll celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles "Survival of the Fittest" Darwin, here is a look back at some of the wacky outdoors acts of 2008, ripped from the pages of notebooks, cocktail napkins and newspapers around the country.
* The year began with a story from Chaparral, N.M.:
Two men trying to trace the outline of a loaded .357-caliber Magnum on their bodies as a pattern for a tattoo accidentally shot themselves, the Otero County Sheriff's Department reported.
Robert Glasser and Joey Acosta, both 22, were treated at a hospital and released. Authorities said Glasser was struck in the hand when the gun accidentally went off, and Acosta was hit in the left arm.
Good thing it wasn't a bazooka.
* Shaun D. Smith of Federalsburg learned in November that no good deed goes unpunished.
The good news: Maryland Natural Resources Police said Smith was saved from a potentially fatal fall when his tree stand collapsed by being properly buckled into his safety harness.
The bad news: In the process of freeing himself from the harness, the 18-year-old hunter broke his arm, requiring an airlift to Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury.
Adding insult to injury: Smith will have to go to Caroline County District Court on Jan. 9 on charges he was hunting without a license.
* A Pottsboro, Texas, man relaxing with his family on Lake Texoma in January needed the local sheriff's department to help him reel in the catch of a lifetime.
Bob Faulkner, you see, hooked up with one of the monsters of the deep and the highway: a stretch Hummer limousine.
Faulkner said he thought he had snagged something larger than his boat, perhaps a sunken boat, a jet ski or chunk of a floating dock. He attempted to attach his anchor to it to drag it to shore but instead hauled up a chunk of vinyl.
It took deputies four tries to bring the beast to the surface. The vehicle had been reported stolen.
* A North Carolina man said he caught a state-record-breaking catfish with his granddaughter's pink Barbie rod and reel.
David Hayes said his 3-year-old granddaughter, Alyssa, had asked him to hold her Barbie rod Aug. 5 while she went inside his home to use the restroom, and that's when the 21-pound, 1-ounce behemoth latched onto the line.
