NavList:

Jackson M, you quoted from Foy's website:

"forsaking our navigation skills in favor of GPS may lead not only to Alzheimers and other diseases of memory, but to losing a key part of what makes us human."

I'm calling it: the emperor has no clothes. This is obscenely fashionable nonsense. Are you really going to tell someone whose relative suffers from Alzheimer's that their tragedy has happened because their wounded loved one, almost a ghost to them, didn't navigate enough?? If they spit in your face, you should consider yourself lucky. There have been misguided pseudo-experts declaring their answers for Alzheimer's for decades. Aluminum, anyone?? From the WSJ a year ago:

This wishing isn’t new. Thirty years ago the world quickly latched onto the false hope that aluminum in antiperspirant and cookware was the culprit behind Alzheimer’s. Then came the cinnamon cure, the cayenne-pepper cure, the coconut-oil cure. The latest street buzz is to say “yes” to marijuana and “no” to gluten and carbs.

We all know that funny stories about trusting GPS are all the rage. It's part of the recent anti-technology Luddite movement. You know how it goes:

After I left the bar, my GPS told me to drive right into that swamp! Stupid GPS... [hic] Honeshtly, ociffer, it was the GPS!

Sure... it's not always that bad. Hey, we just love our little hobby. Go Team Navigation! But is our perspective so warped that we will accept any claim that comes along, so long as it stands in support of navigation? Like using GPS leads to Alzheimer's?! No. Absolutely not. That's bullshit. According to the Wikipedia article about him, George Foy is an author capable of spinning a good yarn, and I don't suggest that there isn't value and enjoyable prose in this book. The Wikipedia article also notes that he has some considerable experience at sea. But his work is primarily fiction. He is a professor in creative writing. And he enjoys writing under pseudonym. It speaks volumes that the description of this book on his website begins by declaring that it is non-fiction --just so we know! Foy is skilled at fiction. Maybe he doesn't know the difference.

Frank Reed