Re: Wilderness Survival
As man said, if you're going to die, it's almost certainly going to be from hypothermia. Staying dry should be job #1. And if your (presumably cotton) clothes do get wet, you may even be better strutting around naked than keeping the wetness close to your skin.
After that, you've got to find help and find water. Food may be nice, but you can go a lot longer w/o eating than w/o drinking. But if you find help, all of that is irrelevant. Since you don't have a whistle to blow ad nauseum, finding a meadow would be great. Find a meadow, get some rocks, and spell out a big HELP. Hey, if you wear glasses, you may be able to start a fire w/ them. That will keep you warm and dry, and help people find you all at once. I don't think the average person is good enough to start a fire w/ friction, or can find a flint rock consistently enough to make starting a fire a realistic priority, however.
Food? I don't know the edible plants in the Midwest or Southwest. I would fare better in the Pacific Northwest, where I know what plants I can eat better. I guess I could always turn to bugs, though.
If a person maintains a cool, level head and the will to survive, they've got two weeks easy. If he flips out, gives up, and gets wet, he's probably got more like 4 days. Unfortunately for them, a lot of people fall into the latter category.
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