Bill Chin found this squash with a rather interesting label and shared it on Facebook.   He has granted permission for me to share this with you all.   Many will find the logo on the label rather interesting.   I find the similarity to a former OA logo too great to have happened by chance.    I wonder if executives in the company, or whoever designed the logo, were ever members of the Order of the Arrow.

If we follow the recipe on the label, must we use official BSA cider, nutmeg and eggs?   Would it have been more appropriate for this logo to have been used on a brand of bowling balls, or for a tomato farm?

Are there any readers here that use sbcglobal.net as their email provider?   If so, please write me at either jpannell@triad.rr.com or jpannell@oaimages.com.

There is someone out there who is probably getting very frustrated thinking I am not answering his emails.  He keeps writing looking for a response.  I have responded several times, now from three different email addresses at three different domains, and he still continues to write looking for a response from me.   The original issue revolved around him giving a bad email address when he subscribed to the members area of the site.   However further emails to the correct address are not getting through.  It would be helpful to know if the issue is one of sbcglobal.net blocking my various addresses or if it is a matter of his not being able to receive emails from me.

If you use this provider, please take a moment to write me and then let me know if you receive my response.   Thanks.

Update (2/11/2011 6am): Thanks to kind readers it appears that mail from me is getting through to sbcglobal.net.   I expected this to be the case.  It would seem this is an issue only with the person who is apparently not receiving replies from me,  and not the provider in general.

Sparky, A Scout Mug Collector

Mugs and mug collectors are the Rodney Dangerfields of Scout memorabilia collecting.   They get no respect.  Mugs are difficult to transport and display, and costly to ship.  Only a few people collect them.   Others think of them as not much more than clay pigeons.

I found a new mug collector my home one recent night!  I was typing on my computer and heard a plaintive “meow” from my den.   Upon investigation, I found Sparky as you see him in the picture here.   Cats like to climb and he just had to admire some of my mugs up close!

He got up to the top of this wall mounted bookcase, but couldn’t quite figure out how to get back down.   I had to help him, made more complicated by his dislike for being picked up.   Once I was able to pick him up, he quickly jumped out of my arms and back to the floor.    Not a single mug was knocked off the shelf.

Observant scout memorabilia collectors will note the assortment of “his newfound collection”: a camporee from Long Island in the 1970s, Ten Mile River in NY, a NOAC mug, a conclave mug from east central Illinois, several local items including a couple of camp staff mugs, and if you follow his eyes downward you can see a mug from Gilwell on the shelf below him.

(Here’s a second one for this Thanksgiving morning.)

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful years and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the Source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the field of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than theretofore. Population has steadily increased notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.

In testimony wherof I have herunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

[Signed]
A. Lincoln

WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me “to recommend to the people of the United States a DAY OF PUBLICK THANKSGIVING and PRAYER, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:”

NOW THEREFORE, I do recommend and assign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed;– for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish Constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted;– for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge;– and, in general, for all the great and various favours which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also, that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions;– to enable us all, whether in publick or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us); and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

GIVEN under my hand, at the city of New-York, the third day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine.

(signed) G. Washington

I don’t know how it works at OA Section Conclaves elsewhere around the country, but here in SR-7B (eastern and central North Carolina), it is customary to have a special Vigil Breakfast, followed by a rededication, early on Saturday morning. For years I have said if I were in charge this would become the Vigil brunch, allowing the Vigil brothers to sleep in, followed by a siesta. I was only partly joking.

In addition to having to get up in the dark and trudge to a breakfast long before others are awake, and often only a few hours after the patch trading has finally wound down, this creates logistical and staffing challenges. The six lodges in our section bring about 1000 brothers to conclave every year. Camp facilities are stretched to their limits. The cook crew already has a challenge in feeding this many people. Having to serve a breakfast for about 200 at 6am (and plenty of hot coffee!), while meeting the expectations that it be something “special”, can quickly become and irksome task.

I recently received my email copy of the November 2010 edition “The Apensuwi”, our section newsletter. A significant change to the conclave schedule was announced in it:

…Big news on the conclave schedule. At the recent Council of Chiefs the lodge chiefs and the section officers voted to move the vigil breakfast to a vigil reception on Friday night. Vigil honor members should expect a nice reception and plenty of fellowship with other vigil members…

I applaud this welcome change! This lifts a burden from the shoulders of the cook crew staff, allowing others to perform the much simpler task of cleaning up afterwards. The Vigil brothers have a greater opportunity to have fellowship with each other in a more relaxed environment. They’re not rushed out of bed in the dark pre-dawn hours and rushed through breakfast so as to not delay the meal of the rest of the conclave. It creates a nice social event as a way to start the conclave. There could even be some informal and friendship patch trading amongst the Vigil brothers.

I do not know if there will still be a Vigil rededication ceremony. If there is one, it could happen on Friday night after this reception. It could also be more comfortably worked into the early Saturday morning program, before breakfast, now relieved from the pressures of serving a meal just before it.

Congratulations to Wahissa lodge (the service lodge for the 2011 SR-7B conclave) and the leadership of SR-7B for this welcome change. Innovation is sometimes very good. Without knowing it, you have answered one of my wishes. I tip my hat to you all.

“In Flanders Fields”, by John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Finally I was able to spend some time making a dent in the backlog of images and email I have accumulated.   It’s rough to keep up this site when you have a job that doesn’t allow you to work on personal stuff during work hours!  One email address is down to about 600 emails, the other still has more.

Then disaster hit yesterday evening.   A friend of mine sent me a link to an interesting story on an known European news website.   It appears that site was compromised and my computer was soon infected with some nasty bits of malware.   After working on it for over 24 hours now, the computer is almost clean.

It was a few nasty pieces that had weaseled their way past my various defenses and were resiting attempts to remove them.   At one point I would have consider surrendering, either wiping the drive and reinstalling the OS or even ditch the computer  — after recovering all those emails! — but that doesn’t seem to be the case.   “Victory is mine!”

In the midst of this, my CDROM drive may have also failed.   That  may be unrelated to the malware attacks.

Luckily for me I have a laptop and a smart phone so I didn’t completely lose my online access.

The upside of this is that I am now giving real thought to getting myself a new computer.   The desktop, like this site’s former server, is aging.   Maybe I should consider this a hint that it is time to get a new computer.

On another note, it appears this blog may be under attack in a manner of speaking.   There has been a concerted effort to “comment spam” this blog.   Some probably have seen some of the comments that have made it past my filters and been posted, before I deleted them.    Possibly as a result, the mySQL server goes down from time to time.   If you see that it is down, please don’t assume I know:  tell me.

I’ve  been tinkering a  lot lately both on and with computers.   A lot of it has had nothing to do with this site.   I also recently replaced my failing Blackberry Storm with a Droid 2.   The “gee, whiz!” effect is still in active.  So far, I generally love my Droid.   I’ve been downloading some apps and wondering how some day they could transform our hobby.   Already laptops are becoming common place but this is only the beginning.

The app that really has me dreaming right now is Google Goggles.

You can already search for information using text or voice input.   Goggles searches for information by pictures.   You use your phone’s camera to take a picture of an item, Goggles then analyzes the picture and returns search results based upon what it thinks it sees.   Right now, it appears to be somewhat limited and performs best with products and corporate logos.  I’m drooling over the thought of being able to use this to identify patches.   One would need a database of images — which I already have — and then write a program matching the user’s image to an item or items in that database.   I wish I knew how to do that!

Another app with great potential here is PayPal Mobile.  Versions exist for the Droid, iPhone,  and Blackberry devices.   You can use this mobile application for your basic PayPal tasks.    It also has a feature to allow you to split a bill  — imagine being out for dinner and wanting to split the check — and then request money via PayPal from each person.   The coolest feature is the ability to transfer information by tapping phones.    You just closed the great deal from your favorite vendor and now need to pay up?   Just tap phones together and money is readily transferred from the buyer to the seller.

If you get tired of the TOR and want to wish upon a star for that for that elusive item then Google Sky Map might be just the app for you.  Using the GPS capabilities of your phone it displays a  star map for your current location.  Hold your phone up and it will display that portion of the sky, identifying the stars and other objects there.

The technology is still in its infancy, but I can imagine a day in the not too distant future when smart phones will radically change our hobby.

Dirge For Two Veterans

By Walt Whitman

THE last sunbeam
Lightly falls from the finish’d Sabbath,
On the pavement here, and there beyond it is looking,
Down a new-made double grave.

Lo, the moon ascending,
Up from the east the silvery round moon,
Beautiful over the house-tops, ghastly, phantom moon,
Immense and silent moon.

I see a sad procession,
And I hear the sound of coming full-key’d bugles,
All the channels of the city streets they’re flooding,
As with voices and with tears.

I hear the great drums pounding,
And the small drums steady whirring,
And every blow of the great convulsive drums,
Strikes me through and through.

For the son is brought with the father,
(In the foremost ranks of the fierce assault they fell,
Two veterans son and father dropt together,
And the double grave awaits them.)

Now nearer blow the bugles,
And the drums strike more convulsive,
And the daylight o’er the pavement quite has faded,
And the strong dead-march enwraps me.

In the eastern sky up-buoying,
The sorrowful vast phantom moves illumin’d,
(‘Tis some mother’s large transparent face,
In heaven brighter growing.)

O strong dead-march you please me!
O moon immense with your silvery face you soothe me!
O my soldiers twain! O my veterans passing to burial!
What I have I also give you.

The moon gives you light,
And the bugles and the drums give you music,
And my heart, O my soldiers, my veterans,
My heart gives you love.

Observant readers and users of this site may notice that I apparently developed the ability to travel through the space/time continuum with some of the recent site updates.   Look carefully at some of the stuff recently added to the site and this blog and you’ll see what I mean.

First I need to adjust the clock on this server and now I have displayed time travel abilities.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you all had a great day today!

“Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor, and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me “to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”

“Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be. That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks, for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation, for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his providence, which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war, for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed, for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.”

“And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions, to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually, to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed, to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shown kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord. To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and Us, and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.”

“Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.”

–President George Washington, 3 October 1789

Stephen Graves: Eagle Scout

Homer Dearmin sent me this page from the website for Stephen Graves, a candidate in 2004 for the US Congress in NY’s Fifth Congressional district.

Some of the biographical material on the site and photo captions read like they were written by a second rate publicist.         His biography begins:

“Like many people living in New York’s 5^th district, Stephen Graves immigrated to the greatest city in the world from elsewhere. Stephen Graves grew up in Tennessee, lived in Los Angeles and also abroad in Asia and Europe…”

He immigrated to New York from “elsewhere”?     The man grew up in Tennessee, not some foreign country!     That surely did not gain him any support from the district’s immigrant communities.

He has a picture captioned as “Visiting my grandparents” (he’s at their graves).     Another shows him kayaking on the Colorado “before a shoulder injury cancelled (sic) (his) Olympic hopes.”     He also posts his high school senior picture taken “not long after winning the National Merit Semifinalist Award”.

The funniest photo, for me, is the one I lifted and posted here.     He is shown as an “Eagle Scout with Order of the Arrow and God & Country Award”. If one is going to use former membership of the BSA as a political prop and post a picture in uniform, please do a little checking to make sure there are no glaring errors in the photo!     He was such an active member of the Order of the Arrow that he didn’t even know how to wear his OA sash! I wonder if this photo cost him votes among those who might have otherwise been sympathetic to an Eagle Scout and OA brother running for Congress.

The site is copyrighted 2004 and the blog no longer exists.     According to the NY Times his Congressional bid failed with the Democrat achieving an easy victory.

The world was a very different place 20 years ago.   Europe was divided between two opposing powers, engaged in a “Cold War” for decades.     Germany was split in two.     A wall split its former capital, helping to make those in East Germany prisoners in their own country.     Then the wall came down and all was changed.

Last Summer those who attended NOAC were told about the Power of One.     In this case, it was the power of a few:   those who dared to dream of freedom for Germany and Europe and who lead others towards that end.

First, President Kennedy came to Berlin at the height of the Cold War.

Then President Reagan dared to believe freedom could triumph over tyranny and famously demanded the Wall come down.     His words would shake politics in the US and be derided by his opponents as reckless and poorly chosen.




Let us not forget other leaders responsible for the fall of the Berlin Wall.     Mikhail Gorbachev opened up the Soviet Union, hoping a bit of perestroika and glasnost could satiate the desire for freedom within his “Evil Empire”.     He was wrong.   However, his restraint during the heady days of twenty years ago helped prevent what could have been a very different chain of events and later became the first Soviet leader to voluntarily relinquish his position; not to die in office or be forced out by opponents, but to calmly accept his fate and step down.   Lady Margaret Thatcher, the first woman to become Prime Minister of Great Britain, was a staunch defender of freedom and ally of the United States.   Lech Walesa of Poland rose from being a dock worker to union leader and eventually the leader of a free Poland.     Karol Wojtyla rose from being a parish priest, to cardinal, and — in what I believe was truly divine inspiration — the first non-Italian elected Pope in over 400 years.     Many believe the Roman Catholic church will some day recognize him to be amount the ranks of the Saints.

Note the number of times I used the word “first” in the preceding paragraph.

These are all examples of the Power of One.

After the Wall fell, the late Leonard Bernstein led   the combined forces   of instrumentalists and singers from Germany, France, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States in a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. He directed one word to be changed in the “Ode to Joy”. Freude (Joy) became Freiheit (Freedom).




O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!
Sondern laßt uns angenehmere anstimmen,
und freudenvollere.
Freiheit! Freiheit! …

(Oh friends, not these tones!
Rather, let us raise our voices in more pleasing
And more joyful sounds!
Freedom! Freedom! …)

This bit of gloating is just for Greg.

UNC 31, ECU 17

And to think this happened on “Talk Like a Pirate Day”, too!

What a beautiful song…

Might as well “Hark the Sound”, too.

I don’t really care about college football, but couldn’t pass up the chance to gloat, be an “OCF” and pick on a friend or two!

Happy Bastille Day to our friends in France!

In honor of the occasion I share a great scene with you from the film, “Casablanca”.

Tu Cubin Noonie 508 S47

Happy Canada Day to my friends to the north. Last year I posted some anecdotes of my time traveling in this country, living near its border, and shared a fitting tribute for this day. Long live “The Maple Leaf Forever“.     Alexander Muir was inspired to write this song in 1867, the year of Canada’s confederation, by the sight of a large maple tree on his property in Toronto.

I think the flap pictured here, 508 S47,   might be the only Canadian related Order of the Arrow patch.     I find that hard to believe, but can’t find another one right now.   This was issued for the 10th Canadian Jamboree in 2001, held on Prince Edward Island.

Another musical tribute to the Dominion of Canada is after the jump.

I read this story earlier today and wanted to share it with readers of this blog.     Gina Marie Incadela was diagnosed with autism at the age of two.     At three she could not speak.       She was blessed to have some inspired teachers who noted that music helped her learn.     So, she went from being unable to talk to singing the national anthem at major sporting events by the age of seven.

You can hear Gina sing before a Magics vs. Celtics game in this year’s NBA playoff after the jump.

For a seven year old girl, she has a great voice. Not only should she be congratulated, but also praise her parents and teachers for all their hard work with Gina!

While tending to your family celebrations today, please take a moment to remember what we commemorate on this day.   I am told it used to be customary, especially in the South, to decorate graves in the late Spring around Memorial Day. In fact, this holiday has its origins in the decorating of graves of those who gave their lives for this country during the US Civil War, or the War Between the States:

I. The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land. In this observance no form or ceremony is prescribed, but Posts and comrades will, in their own way, arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.

We are organized, Comrades, as our regulations tell us, for the purpose among other things, “of preserving and strengthening those kind and fraternal feelings which have bound together the soldiers sailors and Marines, who united to suppress the late rebellion.” What can aid more to assure this result than by cherishing tenderly the memory of our heroic dead? We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance. All that the consecrated wealth and taste of the nation can add to their adornment and security, is but a fitting tribute to the memory of her slain defenders. Let pleasant paths invite the coming and going of reverent visitors and fond mourners. Let no neglect, no ravages of time, testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic.

If other eyes grow dull and other hands slack, and other hearts cold in the solemn trust, ours shall keep it well as long as the light and warmth of life remain in us.

Let us, then, at the time appointed, gather around their sacred remains, and garland the passionless mounds above them with choicest flowers of springtime; let us raise above them the dear old flag they saved; let us in this solemn presence renew our pledge to aid and assist those whom they have left among us a sacred charge upon the Nation’s gratitude—the soldier’s and sailor’s widow and orphan.

II. It is the purpose of the Commander in Chief to inaugurate this observance with the hope that it will be kept up from year to year, while a survivor of the war remains to honor the memory of his departed comrades. He earnestly desires the public press to call attention to this Order, and lend its friendly aid in bringing it to the notice of comrades in all parts of the country in time for simultaneous compliance therewith.

III. Department commanders will use every effort to make this Order effective.
—General Orders No. 11, Grand Army of the Republic Headquarters[1].

Here in the South graves of Confederate veterans were also so decorated and honored.   In fact many states in the Southeast, and even some in Pennsylvania still celebrate Confederate Memorial Day.

Where I live it used to be customary for their to be a parade through town to the local cemetery.     Veterans’ groups, marching bands and the local Boy and Girl Scouts would have a prominent role in the commemorations and festivities of the day.     Graves would be spruced up and fresh flowers planted.     Some would even bring a picnic lunch with them.     Alas, this tradition has since died.

Please remember on this day those who offered the Supreme Sacrifice so that we could be safe and free.

This is just a friendly reminder from this webmaster and blogger. April 1st is coming soon. That date has been celebrated on this blog in the past. I expect it to be celebrated again this year.

This is your only warning.