packsaddle

maybe here...

maybe some more here...

...and then some...

a little more....

and some more....

Some more discussion about pinewood derby

NJ, anyone who's ever tried to impress a girl knows about 'acting'...and as well about skipping a track (aka stumbling around like Forest Gump...but that's beside the point, the better analogy for our age would be 'skipping a groove'). I also like Aretha and Linda but I also remember well Patti Page and for that matter, Ethel Merman. If the need arises I can still embarrass the boys by singing 'How much is that doggie in the window', when I get to the 'arf, arf' part they're groaning and their eyes are rolling. I just love it. I gotta work this into a lecture sometime....

Skeptic, Like the cubs say at the sound of broken glass, "I didn't do it!" The Stars and Stripes Forever is the National March. The rose is the National Flower. The oak is the National Tree. The National Patron Saint is Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception And the national emblem is a carrion eating scavenger.

Around 1962...playing Capture the Flag in the Great Smokies...I was crouched hiding and another boy saw me from a distance so he thoughtlessly chunked a really big rock at me. Never saw it coming. It hit my knee squarely and broke the kneecap. It was painful. I screamed. I was bleeding like a stuck pig and sounded like one as well. One of the other boys fainted. Another was in tears. They carried me to a flat place and held me down to treat the cut. A leader took me to a clinic for an X-ray. I was on crutches for a couple of months. The boy who threw the rock was deeply sorry and I forgave him...heck I might just as well have been the thrower if the tables were turned. More recently, we're on the Yorktown, it's after dark. The boys are being boys and a few of them decide to chase someone. The one being chased (in the dark) runs slap into a steel pole and knocks out a tooth. The boys bring him to the latrine with blood gushing out of his mouth, I tell them to FIND THAT TOOTH! Wow, they actually found it. We take boy and tooth to the emergency room. Everyone else goes to sleep. At the hospital they put the tooth back and patch him up with pain killers. We return at about 5 am, no point in trying to sleep now. The tooth doesn't 'take' (I knew it had almost no chance) so I create an award for the occasion including a photo of him with a big smile and 'RIP' superimposed on that tooth. Everyone laughs, even the parents, a little nervously. But aside from a big dental bill, all was well.(This message has been edited by packsaddle)

I looked around and found conflicting statements. Here's a source for what I had heard: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Is_there_a_national_anthem_etiquette I'll keep looking to see if I can resolve this.

Check me if I'm wrong but the salute during the anthem wasn't made part of the code until 2007. Could be they just don't know. On the other hand, in this solidly Republican and so-called Conservative region, I regularly see businesses and private homes with American flags that are left up at night and through all kinds of bad weather. I know of several at this moment that are literally in shreds, barely recognizable. In several locations, including one neighbor, they fly the Confederate flag on the same staff and ABOVE the American Flag. Keep in mind...these are hardened Tea Party types too. The flag code doesn't seem to mean much.

As for me, it always seems to be played in a key that doesn't fit my voice. So I stumble along - shifting octaves, and absolutely consumed by preemptive embarrassment that someone might notice.

I get paid a couple of times each month. I never see it. One computer makes some numbers in one place smaller and another computer makes some numbers in another place larger. In the transaction, one of the computers (I couldn't care less which one) takes some of the diminished numbers and puts them in other places. When I check my accounts I see numbers. But I know that there's really nothing there but 1001110101110's and if someone 'pulls the plug' it all goes away. I allow myself the illusion that I have multiple bank accounts and that the funds in them actually exist. The only thing that really exists is the system in which someone else is willing to exchange their work or goods or services for some of my numbers. And on and on. But in essence, I teach some young people and in exchange I get food on the table or my home insured or painted or my car fueled with gasoline. The numbers don't exist but they are the currency of the transaction. It wouldn't matter if I moved 'borrowed' the funds from one account and put them in another, or even spent it. The numbers just shift around. It's all smoke and mirrors. There's nothing really there. It IS a house of cards, though, and it has been for quite a while. The people in charge can just adjust the numbers if they want. The actually did this recently. No need for a printing press...just make the numbers in an account bigger. In this society there are some things that are less real than others. The illusion of an association of those numbers with other illusions like 'security' is laughable. But then, most of us seem to accept it when the bald ego (aka Rush Limbaugh) says, "It's all about money." I remember the day when a president not only spoke about the prospect of paying down the debt but actually had that ability. That was our last chance. We made a Faustian bargain. And I doubt that anyone will be clever enough to out-maneuver Mephisto this time.

I tend to agree with the basic ideas Beavah presented. To me loyalty is similar to trustworthiness in where they both originate. They both begin with personal honesty and in this I mean the internal honesty and fidelity to one's own ideals. Loyalty follows nicely as being loyal to those same ideals. Without these personal qualities (as well as those ideals) all aspects of honesty and loyalty with respect to interactions with other people are in question.

'God Save the Queen' Yeah, the Sex Pistols had a really nice version of that one.

Just think about all the money that person makes with their voice...more than you'll ever see in a lifetime. Have a nice day.

When I took on the CM position, I had no idea what I was doing. I also had no idea that the district had such a stratified social hierarchy. At roundup, the DE set things up so that ALL of the boys decided to go to a competing pack, the one his sons were in. I felt blindsided and a bit betrayed. The CO didn't help things when I found out that ALL of the boys in that church were members of other units. Den leaders from the other pack also called the families to try to talk them into switching. I found out about that much later. It was bad. I had no idea what the history was that led to this situation. But I was determined to turn things around. Next time, prior to roundup, I sent our own fliers out to the local schools and churches, way ahead of the district. If someone called, I had an application to them immediately (no need to attend the roundup, you can fill out the application at your own convenience). I talked personally to teachers and families AND I called for a meeting of the CO church leaders. They claimed, by and large, that they didn't even know they were sponsoring a cub scout pack (sadly, I considered this actually to be plausible). I laid out the recent history for them, explained some simple demographics and informed them that if things didn't turn around the oldest unit in the area (their troop and pack) would fold due to lack of boys. They were even more embarrassed when I mentioned the parable of the fig tree and only the minister had any idea of what I was talking about. I told them my intentions were not merely to shame them but rather to inform them that if they wanted to continue to support the community though the unit they sponsored, they had one year. It was that simple, and whatever happened, I couldn't do much about it. They made the right decision. And they started communicating in the community. Next roundup, only a few families showed up and this pack took almost all of the boys (we had already signed up a bunch of new families). The DE looked like he had been struck by lightning (he was about as intelligent as a really smart bucket of nails). I terminated my interactions with the district and took the approach that we were on our own...so be it. The pack came back and I eventually turned it over to a really nice guy and a good CM and I moved on to catch up with my son in the troop. The pack demographics (zero Webelos) had just caught up at the troop level and the troop almost died. HOWEVER, the CO kept things alive long enough for the newly rejuvenated pack to practically start the troop all over. The social hierarchy is still there although not as strong. The new DE seems to be a good guy but I admit that after a series of disastrous DE's I'm permanently distrustful of both district and council (why do councils even exist? what a waste of money!). We still take the attitude that we're on our own. And that seems to work just fine. As long as we keep sending registration money, BSA seems fine with it as well.

Scoutfish, Fella, I have to tell you....your point about trolls has been made before about two years ago in a much older thread... Sorry, couldn't resist. BIG IMPISH GRIN (This message has been edited by packsaddle)

John, I understand. I'm sorry for that news and wish him and you the best.

Yeah, I get you now. I wasn't sure about where it fits really and I don't know who moved it or why. I understand your feelings about being serious and contentious but the I&P forum is also where a sense of humor helps at times. As it is this thread is neither serious nor contentious. Unless someone actually believes this stuff...in which case they could just as well spend their time looking for bigfoot or space aliens or some such.

C'mon, John, what's the harm? I'm personally involved in debunking biological fallacies and this doesn't bother me one bit. oldisnewagain1, I'm awarding partial credit for remembering that part. It's close. But in that particular scene, he read the label for the specimen he swallowed and spoke its scientific name, Generic and specific epithets. That will get you full credit. Extra credit if you can figure out what kind of organism it was (not a cephalopod).

Trivia question to my students for today..you guys are free to try your hand as well..it sounds like you might fit the profile... In the movie, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, with Kirk Douglas playing the character, Ned Land - the character Ned is locked in a storage room with the professor's assistant, Conseil (played by Peter Lorre). Ned discovers that the specimens are preserved in ethanol and begins to drink from the jars. He accidentally swallows one of the specimens and reads the label to find out what it was. Question: What was it?

House, "Everyone lies" Reagan, "Trust but verify" Among the illusions we allow ourselves such as 'security' or 'love', I also include 'trust'. The only reason to cling to illusions like these is pragmatic - they allow us to operate as a society even though we violate them so often. There simply is no option to the illusions. Telosian to Kirk through telepathy, as Christopher and Vena retire to their fate, "...they have their illusion and you have yours. May yours be as pleasant." Live long and prosper

I agree about the dehydrated whole milk. It's almost the only thing you can get in the islands and it is really fine. Hard to find in the states though, compared to the skim milk (chalky water) stuff. In the islands they sell it as unlabeled bags of white powder. Note for travelers: if you try to bring that stuff back to the states in luggage you risk a nice polite conversation with the DEA somewhere along the way.

"I have a bit of a problem with the avowed bit." I think many of us have that problem, perhaps in different directions. It does seem to be a contradiction. On the surface it could be interpreted as meaning that BSA is OK with gay leaders as long as they aren't 'open' about their sexuality. In this sense, it might just as well apply to heterosexual leaders since sexuality isn't supposed to be a component of the program at all. However, this approach has a problem if the restriction is derived from the 'clean' part of the scout law, as I seem to remember it. Clean is clean and if homosexuality is 'unclean' in the eyes of BSA membership policy, then it ought to apply, 'avowed' or not. As I've noted in the past, the real problem is the pragmatic truth that sexuality is something that cannot be known for sure by others if not expressed openly somehow by the individual. In this sense BSA paints itself into a corner with a policy that doesn't really address the basis for that same policy. The policy remains hopelessly flawed by allowing gay leaders (and they most certainly do exist) and all the more hopeless by informing them up front that they will be able to remain leaders as long as they are not avowed. In a single voice BSA not only states, in effect, that gays can lead but BSA also establishes the conditions of their acceptance by telling them how: "don't avow". And as I've noted in the past. Because there is no 'gay' test for membership, this is a logical, unavoidable outcome. If there was ever a place for the term 'stupid' to be applied, this policy is a strong candidate.