Fat Old Guy

" If you think an alleged BSA policy doesn't make sense, why not ask a pro?" Usually, you pros are next to impossible to contact. The current and previous two DEs were notorious for not answering phone calls or emails.

" However, expecting one person to do all of the cooking (and perhaps all of the cleaning) for the weekend is not a good idea." In my son's patrol, the Scouts fight over who gets to be the cook for the outing. Why? Because the cook doesn't have trash duty or have to do the dishes.

Okay, that was supposed to be a "HUGE plasma TV."

dsteele, there may not be the position of "Patrol Cook" but one of the requirements for 1st class is to cook for your patrol for an entire campout. I'd like to know why the Scoutmaster needs to go shopping with the Scout. "I have never met a volunteer or professional that I trust who does not take youth protection seriously." I think that serious has different levels or maybe you wouldn't trust anyone in my troop. For example, I don't know of any adult in my troop, including the women :-), who won't let the boys into the restroom when they're in there. I've driven my neighbor's son to troop meetings without another Scout in the car. Now, our last Scoutmaster was just plain stupid. He drove around with Scouts in the bed of his pick-up truck.

Hey, didn't you guys change your money back in the 60's? Got rid of farthings and shillings and other incomprehensible things and just went with pounds and pence? Why did the Scout Association get rid of the traditional ranks? What was the big change last year?

"Too many scouts tell us they don't have teh $$ for things like rain gear and boots but the first meeting after Christmas they a show up with the latest electronic games and such." Ain't that the truth. One of the Scouts in my troop uses a borrowed sleeping bag and backpack for nearly every outing. Mom and Dad can't afford anything new I was told (I know better because Dad buys every gadget on the market including a HUGH plasma TV). I said, "Hmmmm . . . ask for gear for Christmas." After Christmas, he shows up riding a $400 electric scooter. "Hey! Neat scooter, did your grandparents give that to you?" "No. Mom and Dad did." He's still using a borrowed pack and sleeping bag.

"Do you or anyone else here have any experience inordering Wood Badge items from the UK site? "I am very reluctant to order anything over the internet from outside the US." I've never ordered anything from The Scout Association, the UK analog to BSA but I have ordered loads of stuff from WOSM. They convert our real money to their funny money and charge your VISA or Mastercard. We don't have to pay VAT and only pay shipping. I wouldn't worry about it. You aren't likely to be ripped off by the oldest Scout organization in the world. I've bought a bunch of Scout stuff on ebay from a guys in Thailand, Hong Kong, New Zealand and even a strange land called Texas. Never had a problem.

Hey! My legs may be hairy (manly men are hirsute :-) but my knees aren't knobby and my legs aren't flabby.

"That is the pessimism of unhappy adults not the nature of children who are scout age." Nope, that's the realism of a grumpy adult who deals with kids who don't want to do anything that isn't pre-organized. Many of the kids in my son's patrol live fairly close by. All summer long I heard, "there's nothing to do." I'd say, "why don't you guys get the patrol together, pack some lunches and hike out to the park (5 miles) and spend the day exploring the park?" "Nah, that's too far." "Want me to drive you?" "Nah, it's too hot." "Why don't you guys go on a bike hike, finish off the cycling merit badge, and see what's out there?" "Nah . . . we'd rather sit here but we're bored. Can we watch a movie?" "Hey FOG, can you drive us to the pool?" "Ride your bikes, it's only a mile." "Nah . . ." "Is there anything that you'd like to do that doesn't require me to drive you someplace? Fishing? Basketball? Tennis?" "Nah, we'll just sit here. . . . we're bored." I don't remember being very bored during the summer when I was a youngster. We usually had some mischief to cook up. Baseball, football, making explosives. A considerable amount of time was spent trying to get the attention of girls our age, usually by doing stupid things like belching or throwing crab apples at them. We didn't figure out what we were doing wrong for many years. Maybe kids are different in your part of the world, Bob Whit. Maybe the culture is that different.

"R.I.T. die is a fabric color-changer available" Wouldn't that be "RIT dye"? A "RIT die" would be what they use to cut out the boxes. :-)

Och! Wot sort of kilt has pockets on the sides?

"They didn't do them because either the scoutmaster said they couldn't or never told them it was possible." How about they are just too apathetic to do them? Our Scoutmaster and the ASMs are always trying to get our Scouts to do Patrol outings of any sort but they just plain won't.

For information about the Oak Bead from England visit http://www.scoutbase.org.uk/hq/infocentre/offers.htm

Like Scouting, CAP has all types. Wannabe Marines, ex-military, people who love to fly, etc. My experiences with CAP are nearly 30 years old but I remember them being much more "organized" (read that as disciplined) than Boy Scouts. Someone in authority would speak and things would happen, mostly because it is military oriented. Some people like CAP, some like Sea Cadets, some like Sea Scouts, some like Boy Scouts. Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks, so on and so on. Scooby, doobie, do on.

Iowa, where the men are men and the sheep run scared.

Saw something interesting the other day that would make a wonderful option for those who don't want to invest in the Official pants (Supply Division's motto: We may suck but we're expensive). What is thise interesting thing? The Amerikilt (www.amerikilt.com). Available in olive green, it would look great with knee socks, maybe with a skean dubh tucked into one of them. (This message has been edited by Fat Old Guy)

"I would say that most young women of the twenty-first centuary are not sheltered to the 'harsher realities of the world' but rather they are knowledgable, strong, and the awareness has led them to becoming well prepared for problematic situations through self defense training, or at least heightened awareness when around dangerous situations." Gotta go with Rooster on this one. I deal with women of all ages and for the most part, they are clueless. Maybe clueless isn't the right world but they are definately sheltered. They don't know how to change a tire. They can't check their oil. They don't know how to replace a lock. In short, they are dependant on men. Not that most young men are great streetfighters but men aren't the preferred prey. I laugh at most of the "women's self defense courses" that I see. No, I don't think that self defense is silly. I strongly believe in fighting back even if it is only to scratch and bite. However, too many of the courses don't offer much of anything to the students. They go for a few days and practice yelling "no," and beat up a guy in a padded suit. Fighting back or better yet, making a pre-emptive strike requires a change in attitude, a willingness to harm another person, a belief that you will prevail. This cannot be accomplished in a class that meets for a few hours. If you are ready, willing, and able to defend yourself, I applaud you. If you exist in condition yellow when you are out of your home, you are rare and I hope that my daughter grows up to be like you.

I don't wear my campaign hat "DI style" which tilts the back up and the front down. However, I don't wear it on the back of my head either. I wear it squarely on my head. Being a hard hat, it doesn't fit well at first. There was a fellow who posted a thread on how to get one to fit. He got it wet and allowed it to from to his head and then reformed the crown. I made the mistake of buying one the went on my head when new but as it aged and formed to my head, it wound up being too big. I didn't know that "made to order" hats were available. That sounds like a good way to get a hat that fits well. I've read that back in the old days, Stetson made that style in a few different shapes to accomodate different heads. I did come across an ad for a surplus store that has surplus Marine DI hats for $30. If I can find the ad again, I'll post the information.

"Coming from a place where any sort of a gun was looked upon with a certain amount of unease" Except by the gentry who can afford to "hunt."

"...only God can truly judge." God decides where you spend eternity. Man judges when you start eternity.

Big flaw in our system is that it takes too long to execute someone. Convict them with a provision that all appeals must be filed and heard within a month. Bang! They'e gone. The problem with Devil's Island is that the murderer is walking around enjoying the fresh air, something that his victim will never do again. If you demonstrate that you don't believe that life is sacred, why should we treat yours as sacred. For the record, I've had two close friends murdered. One so brutally that the walls of her house were covered with blood. A close friend was also raped but since the police wouldn't move, some other friends of hers saw to it the rapist would never rape again. No, he's not dead.

Hmmmm. . . we shouldn't tell them what they are doing wrong. Interesting . . . so when my son comes home with three F's and one A, I shouldn't even mention the Fs. I suppose that we should compliment the Columbine shooters on how many students they didn't kill instead of focusing on the negative, the dead kids. If you don't tell a Scout to tuck his shirt in, he may never understand that is what is expected of him.

" From my experience, I've seen a number of scouters (cub and boy) who take the attitude of, "it's JUST cub scouts" like it should not matter." I get that at the Boy Scout level, after all Boy Scouts isn't something important like Soccer.

""Zafran Bibi walked into the police station in the village of Kerri Sheikhan, deep in the valleys of Pakistan's North West Frontier, and gave a harrowing account of how she had been raped by a neighbour." That was her claim. Obviously her assailant convinced the authorities differently. Are we to believe her simply because she's a woman? According to an article that I read on "date rape," the wacko femisists hold that it is "rape" if a girl has sex and regrets it the next day or even a week later.

It's all pretty simple. . . I've found that the most effective way to get Cub Scouts to wear the uniform properly is to beat them with a rubber truncheon. Of course, you do this out of sight of other Scouts so he isn't humiliated and with another adult present because we must follow two deep leadership policies.