MAD DOG HAS HER DAY.

Byline: - David Kronke

Maralyn Hershey, a k a Mad Dog, the retired Wakefield, Va., cop who was ousted last week on ``Survivor: Australian Outback,'' was gracious when members of the Ogakor tribe voted her out, but says what she really wanted to do was cold-cock the conniving Jerri Manthey.

``It's either (be gracious) or beat them to a bloody pulp!'' Hershey said laughingly during a phone conversation. ``Uproot the whole bloody tribal council! Turn over the boulders, put everybody's damn fire out.''

Of Manthey, who is emerging as the villain of this incarnation of the reality phenomenon, Hershey says, ``Without really spewing any toxic venom, Jerri had her issues. When they had the beef jerky brouhaha, that was one thing. (Manthey, apparently lying, told the tribe members she saw tribe member Kel Gleason eating beef jerky and that he was holding out on the other tribe members; he was subsequently voted off.) But what was really out of bounds was when his bag was searched - that was atrocious. Something that ended up on the cutting room floor was when Keith (Famie, the chef who often feuds with Manthey) and I apologized to Kel. He was more subdued than I would've been.''

Mad Dog was ``absolutely'' shocked to discover that Tina Wesson, whom she had befriended on her time on the show, had in fact voted her out. ``That was one of biggest surprises - I didn't know until I saw it last Thursday,'' she says. ``When I saw her flip up her card, I felt like flipping her. I guess a good word to describe my feelings was crestfallen. But then, I was back to, 'Hey, it was a game, don't forget that, Mad Dog.' ''

Hershey - who says she associates fame with ``the other f-word,'' but isn't ruling out any endorsements - said the toughest part was ``the basic deprivation of everything - food, the personal niceties we get used to. You can lump all that together in basic hygiene. There was no damn toilet paper, no toothbrush, toothpaste, no deodorant - those were not permitted as luxury items. That took some getting used to.

``I was a little concerned about body odor, but remarkably, there was none. Because there was nothing to eat, so there was nothing fueling the body.'' Hershey says she lost 10 pounds in her nine days in the outback, and lost 10 more afterward.

``If I really had my wits about me, I might have lasted longer,'' Hershey concludes. ``I might have been experiencing some sensory overload. I was like Alice in the Outback, I was so enchanted with the whole environment, seeing kangaroos, being in the outback. That may have distracted me a little bit, and those young crocs got the bite on us, forming alliances very early on.''

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(1 -- 2) ``If I really had my wits about me, I might have lasted longer,'' says Maralyn ``Mad Dog'' Hershey about her stay in ``Survivor's'' Outback. Her torch was snuffed out last week by host Jeff Probst.