The style police were apparently out in full force on Saturday.

Got a call at the office about our outdoors feature that day, the one entitled "Don't Panic."

Apparently, we should have sugar-coated the whole being lost in the woods and trying to survive thing. The anonymous caller wanted to "teach" me that the public would "learn more" if I had written that in a more "positive manner." I was told that I should have used "stay calm" instead of "don't panic."

Truth is, it was Joe Tyan, the focal voice of the story, who used the words "don't panic." I'm not willing to change around the words of someone passing on his knowledge -- and thus risking changing the tone of his warning -- to make it sound "nicer."

I just won't do it. In my opinion, it would be incredibly unethical.

And when we're talking about matters of life and death, as we are when it comes to wilderness survival, I'm not taking that chance.

-- TB