Best of 2001: Best Place To Buy Gear To Help You Through Your Survivalist Phase

G.I. Joe's
544 Sixth Avenue, Downtown
619-531-1910
799 El Cajon Boulevard, El Cajon
619-401-7589

G.I. Joe's carries products honed from 200 years of military survival insights. Like Meals Ready to Eat -- military rations -- with built-in chemical heaters ($5.95; chemical heaters alone, 79 cents). Or liquid-filled lensate compasses ($10.99). Or six-hour chemical light sticks (to mark, say, a meeting spot, read your map by, attract fish to your hook at night, or, okay, take to raves). You'll need water-purification filters, 79-cent can openers, snakebite kits, toothbrush covers. But above all, don't leave home without FM 21-76, The Department of the Army Field Manual. Many a lost platoon's survival lessons are packed into it. What jungle plants and desert bugs to eat, how to read the sun, how to get back. Alive. That's worth $6.95, isn't it?