Prescott Arizona News and Events - Read It News Magazine

by Cody Lundin
Gibbs Smith, Publisher, 2007
450 pp. $19.95

Cody Lundin prowls back and forth on his bare feet in front of us, a two-liter blob of crystal water balanced on his upraised palm. We’re a small group on folding chairs cramped into the mall library branch. Cody’s head brushes the dangling felt bats and ghosts of Halloween, setting them swinging. He seems not to fit so well in civilization as he brandishes this artifact of it: if civilization goes down, he says, this simple thing could save our lives.

The water in Cody’s hand inhabits a naked clear plastic Coke bottle. Lay it down in the sun for several hours; the UV radiation won’t kill all microbes but will whack the sickening guys, E. coli, Salmonella, Cryptosporidium, Giardia, et al. Of course, if your water is turbid with algae or sediment, you’ll need to pour it through coffee filters or a bandanna… And UV wouldn’t have helped in New Orleans, where the floodwater teemed with solvents, pesticides, antifreeze, the urban chem-cocktail. For that, you’d need to make a still.

You know how to make a still, don’t you?

No? You need Cody’s book. Follows the best-selling 98.6 Degrees: The Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive, geared to wilderness survival. The new book’s subtitle clearly states its theme: Stuff You Need to Survive When Disaster Strikes. What chews Cody is the lack of self-reliance of the average urban American (that’s 80 percent of us). Listening to terrified, helpless folks in town meetings during the Y2K run-up apparently hammered this home. Clearly, people would “buy damn near anything to avoid taking responsibility for their lives,” but lacked preparation and practical, at-hand solutions. Cody saw a need, and set out to meet it.

So he details the usual stuff to have on hand – lists first-aid kit ingredients, discusses storing and rotating food supplies – but this is not your grandpa’s survival manual. First to hit your eye are manic cartoons from Chino Valley artist and columnist Russ Miller, along with leading Prescott photog Chris Marchetti’s fine images, giving graphic how-to’s and general fun. With great quotes (Emily Dickinson, Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, Wayne’s World 2, etc.), little-known historical stuff, biological factoids, a multi-section treatise on blisters, an encomium to the cockroach, and Cody’s wealth of ’tude, salty opinions, irreverence and reverence – this book is just damn entertaining.

Nothing is too gross for his contemplation. After all, what beats disaster to snap you back to your basic biology? So, from preparing alternative protein sources (grasshopper, rat) to digging a potty trench to treating festering wounds and diarrhea, he covers the realities.

Yes, there’s self-defense. And weaponry. (From the index: “Weapons – firearms as; canned goods as; element of surprise and.”) But Cody isn’t out to terrify anyone. “Be Prepared, Not Scared,” advises the quote across his back-cover portrait. So the “Stuff You Need to Survive” includes self-knowledge, consensus-building skills, and psyching up to live through fear and horror. The section “How to Dispose of a Dead Body in a Pinch” admonishes, “Every effort should be made to contact and wait for the proper authorities…” – but the day may come when you have to cowboy up. Find out what happens to a corpse in the days after death. Get ready to deal.

Thankfully, Cody’s not into complex, pricey REI solutions for your disaster needs. Practical, feasible preparation – and improvisation – rule. Keep this book by your bedside or in the john, laugh a lot, learn it by heart. Please! Because when the pudding hits the fan, I don’t want to be surrounded by bozos who can’t catch and cook a rat.

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(Living self-reliantly off the grid somewhere well west of Ash Fork, Prescott College grad Cody Lundin founded the Aboriginal Living Skills School, teaches outdoor survival through Yavapai College and is on the Ecosa Institute faculty. He’s been all over the media, and not just outlets you’d expect – Field and Stream and the cover of Backpacker – but Dateline NBC, 702 Talk Radio in Johannesburg and The Donny and Marie Show.)