The Whine thread.

[Distracted]

I beg to differ. My husband is tremendously useful. He doesn't cook (except for grilling hunks of some convenient animal), but the lawn would be a jungle without him, he frequently does laundry, and he cleans the kitchen almost as often as I do. His mother trained him right, apparently, because he was like that when I married him. I dislike the woman immensely, but I have to give her credit for that. Or maybe it was the Boy Scouts. My husband is an Eagle Scout. Nothing like a little camp KP duty to make a boy appreciate a nice dishwasher.

[Kotik]

I beg to differ. My husband is tremendously useful. He doesn't cook (except for grilling hunks of some convenient animal), but the lawn would be a jungle without him, he frequently does laundry, and he cleans the kitchen almost as often as I do. His mother trained him right, apparently, because he was like that when I married him. I dislike the woman immensely, but I have to give her credit for that. Or maybe it was the Boy Scouts. My husband is an Eagle Scout. Nothing like a little camp KP duty to make a boy appreciate a nice dishwasher.

You got lucky Dis I can of course only speak for myself and I'm certified useless I usually work 12 hour days for months. (I had 5 days off this year without being sick, injured etc.) and during that 5 days I was so lazy, I drove through potholes to shake the ashe off the cigarette

Btw. whats that boy scout/eagle scout malarkey all about? heard it a couple times, but somehow sounds greek to me

[enterprikayak]

Priso is pretty good for that sort of stuff. 'Course, I've had my mitts on him since he was 16, so I've trained him up right. In a couple of years it will be over half his life that I've been moulding/manipulating him. There's a freaky thought.

[Alelou]

Eh, Jaime's generally okay at things like getting dinner or dishes done if I'm working late or whatever. He does stuff. He just unpredictably poops out for vast stretches of time, and whether he says he's going to do something or not has very little relation to whether he's actually going to do it or not.

[Distracted]

Btw. whats that boy scout/eagle scout malarkey all about? heard it a couple times, but somehow sounds greek to me

Here's what Wikipedia says about Boy Scouts:

The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) is one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with over 4.5 million youth members in its age-related divisions. Since its founding in 1910 as part of the international Scout Movement, more than 110 million Americans have been members of the BSA.[2]

The BSA goal is to train youth in responsible citizenship, character development, and self-reliance through participation in a wide range of outdoor activities, educational programs, and, at older age levels, career-oriented programs in partnership with community organizations. For younger members, the Scout method is part of the program to inculcate typical Scouting values such as trustworthiness, good citizenship, and outdoors skills, through a variety of activities such as camping, aquatics, and hiking.[3][4]

The Boy Scouts of America celebrated its one-hundredth anniversary on February 8, 2010.

The BSA is a constituent member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement. The traditional Scouting divisions are Cub Scouting for boys ages 6 to 11½ years, Boy Scouting for boys ages 11 1/2 to 18 and Venturing for young men and women ages 14 (or 13 and have completed the 8th grade) through 21. Learning for Life is a non-traditional subsidiary that provides in-school and career education.[1][5] The BSA operates traditional Scouting locally through units sponsored and operated by churches, clubs, civic associations, educational organizations and the like. Units are led entirely by volunteers who are supported by local councils using both paid professionals and volunteers.

BSA has been associated with conservative groups in the US and has garnered some criticism for the exclusion of openly gay males as leaders, but the goal of the organization is to provide a safe environment for boys to learn life skills and ethical behavior. Each sponsoring local church or club is allowed to provide their boys with moral guidance appropriate to their beliefs. Some accuse Boy Scouts of being "pseudomilitary" because of the uniforms and the ceremonies, and it's true that some scouts eventually enter military service, but both my husband and my son benefitted greatly from scouting membership and activities and neither of them chose a military career. An Eagle Scout is a man who has completed the program and has fulfilled certain requirements. They are awarded the lifetime designation of "Eagle Scout" by a committee of adult scouts upon completion of the requirements.

Here's Wikipedia again:

Eagle Scout is the highest rank attainable in the Boy Scouting program of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). A Scout who attains this rank is called an Eagle Scout or Eagle. Since its introduction in 1911, the Eagle Scout rank has been earned by more than 2 million young men. The title of Eagle Scout is held for life, thus giving rise to the phrase "Once an Eagle, always an Eagle".

Requirements include earning at least 21 merit badges and demonstrating Scout Spirit through the Boy Scout Oath and Law, service, and leadership. This includes an extensive service project that the Scout plans, organizes, leads, and manages. Eagle Scouts are presented with a medal and a badge that visibly recognizes the accomplishments of the Scout. Additional recognition can be earned through Eagle Palms, awarded for completing additional tenure, leadership, and merit badge requirements.

Neil Armstrong, Gerald Ford, Steven Speilberg, Donald Rumsfeld, and Mike Rowe (of "Dirty Jobs" fame) are all Eagle Scouts.

[Kotik]

@boyscout/eaglescout

Sounds kinda like that communist Pionier crap we was forced to attend. So it's basically just pathfinders on 'roids if I understand correctly...

[Distracted]

Dunno what you mean by "pathfinders on 'roids". And BSA has no political ideology. Members and leaders can be whatever flavor they want politically as long as they don't endanger the boys doing it. And it's an entirely volunteer organization. No one is forced to do anything. It's boys and their parents (or other neighborhood volunteers) going camping and doing other activities to promote self-confidence, honesty, civic responsibility and cooperation with others.

Does this sound like the oath taken by the members of a subversive communist organization?

Scout Oath
On my honor, I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country;
To obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.

Scout Law
A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.

Scout Motto
Be Prepared

Scout Slogan
Do a good turn daily

[aadarshinah]

I think what he means, Dis, it's the same general "youth group" idea, without the political/socio-economic indoctrination, if you're lucky...

[Alelou]

Snort. Some people would probably agree with you about the Boy Scouts, Kotik. The patriotism gets laid on pretty thick. However, the organization actually has its roots in Britain, if I remember my scouting history properly.

Personally I think a little childhood training in patriotism and civic duty doesn't hurt anyone as long as it's not employed in the service of any particular political agenda. And it makes perfect sense to me that Archer and Reed would be Eagle Scouts.

Trip ... I could see him as a scout, but I'm not sure he would have stuck with it that long.

So, Distracted is right that there's no particular political direction in Scouts, although I feel constrained to note that the national organization does take that "morally straight" to a point some would consider exclusionary.

[Silverbullet]

Thik Trip would have become an Eagle Scout too. He always struck me as a straight arrow. He might not say he was but I think he would be unless he discovered girl scouts.

[Alelou]

Yeah, well, that was exactly what I was thinking ... he'd discover girls and suddenly scouting wouldn't be quite so compelling. Especially if they still have the geeky reputation they have now. I don't think it's fair, but "Eagle Scout" is often said with a sneer.

My theory might change if the Eagle Scouts had a warp theory badge...

[WarpGirl]

My whine: The Phillies lost to the Giants tonight, now it was bad enogh that my beloved, and passionately adored NY Yankees lost to the Rangers last night. But I consoled myself into some guilt free Phillies rooting. Now I can't root for them because they wont be playing in the World Series. I am totally devestated. Now the World Series cuts into all of my favorite TV shows and I have nobody to cheer for... And my traitor mother wants to root for Texas... No offence Ranger fans but we're east coast, and my traitor mother should stay east coast!

[Alelou]

This is the nightmare scenario: I have a full day of grading to do before posting midterm grades by Monday's deadline and the power is out. Right now I'm running on back-up.

I can't even use the time to go take a shower instead since that means our well pump is dead too.

Sigh. Guess I'll have to find a way to hide my bed head, pack up my stuff, and cajole security to let me into the office at work. Of course, since there's no apparent reason for the power outage, it will probably come on the minute I actually find another location at which to work.

Update: Power went on at 11am, which gave me time to catch up on some non-computer grading, and I've been doing the rest all day. Just put in the last grades two minutes ago. I never did get a shower.

Now I can use tomorrow for just the regular class prep.

[Elessar]

I picture Archer as an Eagle Scout, idk about Trip though....

I didn't go that far... I just wasn't raised in that environment. I had never even heard of boy scouts in arizona... but when I moved here all my friends were in it so I was a cub scout for a few years and then a boy scout up until the point... like a year or so before eagle, idk. I wasn't very outdoorsy at the time, I mean tragically awkward outside . I was far more at home in 3 places: behind a nintendo controller, a computer keyboard, and a basketball goal

Kind of interesting little note about how foreigners might view Eagle Scouts btw... In the original 1984 Red Dawn, they're looking for the mayor's son because several kids have ended up in the woods surviving right when the Russians and Cubans invade... so this Cuban officer is talking to the mayor and he's like "Our records show your son is part of a paramilitary organization... 'Eagle Scout'." and the dad's like nah nah that's not military. It's understandable why an occupying force would see it that way - to my knowledge in Eagle Scouts they teach a lot of survival skills, preparedness mentality, personal accountability, physical fitness and even marksmanship to some extent? I mean they teach orienteering and hiking and hunting and trapping and all that, correct? In many ways it's kind of culturally the most common stepping stone for young boys in conservative and/or southern or simply patriotic backgrounds to joining the military because a lot of the skillsets are related and it's an excellent precursor. Lots of generals and astronauts were eagle scouts.

Then again to dispel any perceptions that it's compulsory or anything like the communist or national socialist party 'youth' organizations... it's really not, I never knew a single person who was in the upper level Boy Scouts that didn't love it unless of course they have some kind of obsessively controlling parent which naturally has nothing to do with ideology or political pressure, just a douchebag parent. But typically it's the sort of thing you have to be very individually motivated to do - that's why I stopped after 2nd year Weblow, it just really wasn't my thing at the time but I wish I'd stuck with it.

[Alelou]

I was a cub scout den assistant myself, but I couldn't get my son to care one fig for any of it and I just didn't think there was any point in pushing HIM through the badges if he really didn't want any of them. I kind of wished he'd stuck with it, too, perhaps because *I* enjoyed the outdoors stuff, although I have to admit I did feel that politically I was a fish out of water in that particular gang of parents and some of their boys were insanely ill-behaved little maniacs. However, I loved Scouts as a girl. I definitely have that geeky scout mentality.

I eventually lost interest in it as a girl with a couple of new leaders who started handing out badges like they were candy. With these two, all you had to do was have some ephemeral, obscure connection to whatever the badge was and they'd say you deserved it. Maybe they made money off it, I don't know. Maybe they were competing with other leaders or something. It made the whole thing feel cheap, and also left me with so many badges I would have deserved a badge just for getting them all sewn on my sash. (We moved in any case, and I don't think I ever did bother to get them on there.)