Bah, I hate it when I find what seems to be a really interesting recent thread on this board, and it’s pretty long (a few pages long) - and then I discover that the last few pages of the thread have devolved into a big argument. 
I ignore the argument and make my point. Sometimes it brings around people who want to discuss the issue, most often it gets buried and lost because everyone but the two jackasses braying at each other have abandoned the thread.
It can also kill the fish by bringing them up from a depth where they’re comfortable to a depth where they suffer internal damage. Proper handling before releasing is also critical. From the research I’m doing, it looks like mortality rates vary, but can be quite high (I’ve seen one quote of 37%).
That’s what I do, too, if I can see that it’s just two people who are yammering away at each other. I assume that other people reading the thread are as tired of the arguing pair as I am.
Oh, and we need a good new title for November Mini-Rants - we did the V for Vendetta thing already, haven’t we?
My submission -
November Mini-Rants - Let the Heat of Your Anger Keep You Warm. 
Its that time of the month again. Le sigh. My husband had to go out of town for work, which tends to make me cranky. Or at least I thought that was what was happening until I looked at our calendar and realized that he’s always gone this time of the month. Now I’m cranky because he thinks I’m so cranky this time of the month that he has to flee the state.
At least he knows to keep the chocolate supply steady, because he hid some in my desk before he left. I guess he’ll live for another month.
November ‘what happened to the sun’ Mini-Rants - Spring Ahead, Fall on Your Butt.
Settlers of Catan has changed its rules between at least two printings of the game, some immaterial ones (such as playing with your resources revealed to troll everyone else) and some that actually affect the game (such as turn order). No indication anywhere that the rules had changed. Poor form by the Germans, too, who are usually such sticklers for rules.
Have you ever seen a thread title that looks like it’s pretty bland, so you skip it, but the next day there are three pages? You think that has to be all anyone has to say on the topic, but every time you come back there are a couple more pages listed.
And you think it’s probably devolved into a pointless arguement, but maybe someone made a joke or came up with an interesting side topic and everyone is running with it. Because you’ve seen that happen, too, and it can be really cool. And you just can’t decide if you’re missing something or avoiding something you really don’t want to step in. Especially since, if folks have started joking around you’ll have to start at the beginning, where it was probably at least a little boring, so that you’ll get the joke.
Speaking of Settlers, my husband and I came up with a rule change that we think could have legs - we call it the Bad Loser Scorched Earth Policy. Our games group likes to play Settlers, but I suck at it, so after half an hour, I spend the rest of the game completely out of the running and wasting my time. Our proposed rule change allows someone in that position who has no chance of winning to declare Scorched Earth Policy, and actively start trying to prevent other people from winning. 
I know nothing about the game (except for the fact that Sheldon Cooper can reduce his pals into fits of sophomoric sniggering when he plays). Is there something in the official rules that prevents someone from doing this?
I’d like to pit the untermensch degenerate boys at my school who turn the men’s bathrooms into shitholes with shit and piss stains all over the toilet seat cover and toilet paper all over the ground, that make mediaeval peasant’s cottages look like a germophobe’s paradise and due to the failure of the ERA in passing state legislatures has resulted in our school allowing girls to use the bathrooms in the office but not the lads such as myself who hoped that such a bathroom would be a refuge from the filth (both “humans” and their waste products).
My rant - October has 31 days 
Seriously, it’s still October even in Australia.
[sob] :smack: I’ll attempt to play the sympathy card here by saying that I’ve been sick for the past week. You know, physically sick - aside from the bats normally flying around in the belfry. 
Sorry. :smack:
I did wonder if you were trying to get in ahead of whoever keeps doing the crappy names for the minirants thread. Let’s just pretend you were 
Hmmm, asshole or fool. At least you’re giving me a choice so, I want you know I recognize and appreciate that. 
Not to seem greedy, but I don’t really see those as being mutually exclusive.
Well, they’re two different things. Grandma spent a few days in the hospital-like level of her home; the caretakers used any excuse to make any patient who wasn’t completely out of it exercise. “OK, doll, now you sit here on the edge of the bed and I’ll put the blouse on you… and while you’re there, how’s about turning your feet first in and then out? It would help your circulation, weren’t you complaining that your feet are always cold?” Among other things, it was a way to check on the patients’ coordination and how much “there” they were. Grandma had been sent there because of dehydration and low BP, she had trouble lifting her head but none ordering everybody around (not that we obeyed at all, mind you).
It’s good to be prepared, deltasigma.
I don’t know; we added some things to the rules (like using The Robber in a different way) for our Scorched Earth Policy version.
Trying to block others as soon as you realize they might win, even if you’re far off, is the universal strategy. It sounds like Cat Whisperer has just given a name to it.