Eileen was in her HS Debate Club and she never heard that term in relationship to debates. So... I asked a dog what his opinion was, and this is all I got out of him:

http://mr-carpet-cleaner.com/images/...or-Removal.jpg http://agilityforum.agilityaddicts.n...lies/groan.gif

I agree !!!

He was awesome. We never stay up that late, but it was something else. I'm so glad he made it. In the dark, with the mist and the spray, just amazing......with the wind and the "up and down" the cable.

Wearing the harness was something his sponsors demanded....as you mention. An unbelievable feat.........accomplished.

We love Niagra Falls.......have been there several times..........but it was nicer in the old days before all the high rise hotels took over.

Without that balancing pole and the harness, he might have left his children orphans and his wife a widow.

We got a kick out of them asking him for his passport on the Canadian side. "What is your business in Canada?"

I'll tell you what - - next time you go to The Falls, instead of walking across the Rainbow Bridge take a wire across Niagara. You'll quickly discover the difference. As far as being tethered to the wire - he didn't want any part of it but ABC said they would shut down coverage of the event if he took it off. He needed ABC's sponsorship as it cost over $1.3 million to set up the walk.

For those who claim it wasn't death defying enough - would you rather have seen him fall into the gorge? The possibility of him dangling from the wire isn't exciting enough? I guess the length of the walk through swirling and changing winds with a mist that was more like a steady rain down a steep slope and back up again while talking to annoying television hosts isn't very challenging. The problem is that he made it look too easy. He never missed a step during the 40 or so minutes he was out there while while holding his balance beam. Most people's arms would have went numb long before he completed his walk.

For those who felt they were wasting there time - - why did you continue to watch it? And as far as not being exciting enough - - probably the same ones who complain that the NASCAR race last week wasn't very good - there weren't enough wrecks.

If you had taken the time to listen to him he said it was his dream to walk across Niagara Falls since he was a young child and he was demonstrating that you can do just about anything you want to do if you put your mind to it and work hard.

But - - that's just my opinion . . . . . . .

Very well said. I read in the Niagara Falls paper that he showed up the next day to help clean up after the thousands of spectators. He said he always wants to leave a place as it was before the event took place.

One more awesome picture
 

Here's one more awesome picture - can you see him?

I share the same opinion, and you expressed it in words better than I could have come up with ! :bigbow:

Awesome picture with a tiny blip in the middle. :smiley:

Seriously, this thread is startining to remind me of the joke, "don't P*** on my leg and tell me it's raining outside".

IMHO - An awesome feat. I agree with 1978tbird.

All of these "Stunts" are made for Hollywood. Remember when Evil Knievel said he could cross a Grand Canyon on a motor cycle? When push came to shove and the money for the big event made his jump a national event, he shows up with a damn space ship.

And he didn't make it across!!! And ultimately, it wasn't actually the Grand Canyon that he attempted to jump:

Evel Knievel - The Snake River Canyon

That man would try about anything!!! :D

Bill :)

And has many broken bones to prove it. :D

OK, here's the difference, with that setup I WOULD do it and for far less. If I fell, Oh Well! so I dangle 4 feet below the wire....no harness..I wouldn't do it for ten times the amount.
As far as watching it, actually I DVR'd it and FF'd so I only watched 10 minutes until I realized we were once again duped by the network (not Wallenda per se)

Ah, here we go again......

Do you consider NASCAR or Formula 1 racing to be death-defying? How about the Thunderbirds or Blue Angels? They all have safety devices so I guess they're not by your logic. Yet, there's still deaths that occur. So how should these events be advertised...death defying or not???

Most people don't watch these events to see deaths or to see safety devises used. They watch for the entertainment of seeing someone do something unique....win a race, perform a maneuver, walk a tightrope. If racers with helmets and seatbelts, or pilots with parachutes, or tightrope walkers with safety harnesses bore you because the "death defying" is affected, fine. Go back to watching "The View" or whatever....

well I have raced and I did have some safety equipment, and no that still wasn't safe it just had safety equipment to mitigate SOME of the risk. When one is tightrope walking and CAN'T fall you have mitigated ALL of the risk...there's a big difference. And don't kid yourself, people DO come to races to see crashes.

Again, my question to you is... Are NASCAR/Formula 1/airshows death defying or not? Can they be advertised as such, even though there are safety devises in place specifically to prevent death??

And, no, I don't kid myself.