Both survival and rescue often come down to making the most of whatever is at hand. Often using materials in ways the inventor and manufacturer had never dreamed of.

A friend almost bled to death after a traffic accident because the good Samaritans “didn’t have anything to stop the blood”. Never mind that there were half a dozen tee shirts, a couple belts, at least one necktie in the crowd. It wasn’t really much of a bleed as far as such things go. A lacerated vein. But they all stood round and watched her bleed for the eight to ten minutes it took for the official help to arrive. Too stunned by the crash to help herself she lost consciousness from blood loss a minute before the rescue squad arrived. A few people walked away thinking she was dead.

Luckily the EMTs got there in time and applied a pressure bandage and compression pants before heading to the hospital. But for them she would be dead because a bunch of people couldn’t imagine a shirt might be used as a bandage or a tie or belt used as a tourniquet.

It isn’t the cruel lack of physical resources and our subjugation by the unfeeling laws of physics that makes me mad. It is the lack of imagination and mental rigidity that I find disappointing and sad.

And don’t Dunning-Kruger yourself to death, thinking you know what to do on the ice. We had the luxury of a story about one of my grandfathers showing the kids how to be safe on ice, then breaking through it himself – in shallow water. Short, to the point, and memorable even for kids. Most of the (hyper)extended family also had the luxury of playing on ice in extremely shallow water of a decent-sized lake. Ankle- to knee-deep for a hundred or more meters out. But no one was silly enough to go out anywhere nearly that far.

Also: People driving to Canada across the Great Lakes in winter. Headdesk.