As another week concludes, some of you look forward (I hope) to this modest (okay, verbose) weekly digest as a way to keep abreast of Lost Forest Follies without having to wander through the briars and brambles of its daily treks. But be of good cheer, for I will fear no lanternfly. My baggie and spray protect me. Mark’s grandiose plan for hosting a men’s survival retreat to protect inexperienced dudes from getting victimized by phony survival books (such as the one used by Connor) finally began its inaugural class this week. Huzzah!

Well, almost. Mark’s survival retreat for men got watered down to an Introduction to Fishing seminar, inside the De-Bait Team’s fishing lodge. Rivera skipped us past the plan’s revision and organizing phases, including how it was that the initial class wound up with only three students:  A game warden, lonely because his wife was on vacation; a nattily dressed fellow named Eli who just likes fishing; and Connor, who immediately began a week-long tirade of insulting Mark.

While inside the lodge, Mark figured it was a good place to teach the class how to cast a fishing line (rather than doing this outside). Can we blame Rivera for a lack of fishing experience or is she simply indulging in more Mark Trail Mockery? She focused most of the week on Connor, who managed to entangle his hands in fishing line, while blaming Mark. It was a missed opportunity. Had this happened outside, Connor might have suffered another accident, such as falling into the river and drowning. The week ended with Mark berating himself for thinking up this whole stupid idea. But the drama continues on Monday. Until then . . .

Now this is very interesting. It led me to discover that the European Robin and its American Cousin are not really related, as the American Robin is part of a different genus: Their similarity is cosmetic. The topic was interesting enough for me to do a bit of research. Biology shows that the European Robin (and some other birds) do utilize electromagnetic fields of the earth to help navigate during migration. This process is not fully understood, as far as I can tell, but does not appear to be in doubt. But I saw no mention of animals exhibiting their own electromagnetic fields, or robins using each other’s magnetic field for navigating. Rivera clearly has sources I do not and I’m not a biologist. The literature is complex, so I may just be misreading things. Anybody out there experienced enough to shed any light?