Happy St Patrick's Day

Take your pick:

Kaitlin was a winsome young lass,
Who was cursed with odiferous gas,
Sean said "Don't y'know",
"That the cabbage must go"
"Ere I make ye an amourous pass"

Kaitlin was a winsome young lass,
Who was cursed with odiferous gas,
But it wasn't the stink,
That drove men to drink,
But the shape of the young lady's ass.

Answers to the 1911 Trivia Quiz:

All the trivia questions are multiple choice. Feel free to guess.

1. According to the 1911 scout handbook, which are proper ways to stop a runaway horse and buggy (safety and first aide were combined)?
a. Throw rocks at the horse's head
b. Stand in front of the horse's path and wave arms vigorously
c. Run next to the horse with your hand on the shaft, grab the reigns and pull towards you. (Correct)
d. Turn the horse toward a wall or a house and they will likely stop (Correct)

2. Identify what steps you should take for an object in the eye that were included in the 1911 handbook but no longer included in current instructions.
a. Use a toothpick or the tip of a knife to gently scrape the object out
b. Hold the victim's opposite nostril closed and have them blow vigorously as if sneezing (Correct)
c. Use a drop of Castor oil to soothe the eye after the object was removed (Correct)
d. Hold the victim upside down and shake, letting gravity dislodge the offending object

3. Can you identify which of the following instructions or items about heatstroke were included in the the 1911 handbook?
a. Sunstroke and not heatstroke was mentioned (Correct)
b. Prevent heatstroke by wearing leaves under your hat (Correct)
c. In severe cases encourage the cooling aspects of arterial circulation by applying leeches to the extremities
d. Reduce body temperature by burying the victim up to their neck in cool dirt such as peat, mud or sand near the waterline.

4. Please identify the two treatments for shock that were included in the 1911 handbook but seem to be missing in the current edition:
a. Stimulate the victim by poking his feet with sharp objects
b. Have the victim drink hot coffee, tea or a mixture of aromatic spirits of ammonia and water (Correct)
c. Improve circulation and heat by rubbing the extremities toward the heart (Correct)
d. Slap the victim to divert his attention and help him retain a clarity of the mind

5. Identify which of the following were required to earn the first aid merit badge according to the 1911 Boy Scout Handbook: (All Correct)
a. Demonstrate the Sylvester and Schaefer methods of resuscitation
b. Carry a person down a ladder
c. Treat mangling injury of the leg without severe hemorrhage.
d. Show treatment for bite of finger by mad dog
e. Demonstrate rescue of person in contact with electric wire
f. State the chief differences between carbolic poisoning and intoxication

And the Doctor Weighs In

Well, it was off for blood tests and to the doctor this week for the annual check up. Last year at this time my Cholesterol was running high. Not high enough to give me drugs, just high. So the Doctor told me to lose weight and exercise.

The first thing I did was shed my job. Maybe not the best thing to do but it seemed the right thing to do at the time (especially since I wasn't given an option). That left me all sorts of free time and readers of this blog know that I spent as much as possible cooking.

So much for the weight loss.

And have I mentioned exercise on the blog? I am saving that for my New Year's resolution.

Having struck out on two of the two things the doctor instructed me to do I faced the physical and the results of my blood work with some trepidation.

No need to worry folks. The cholesterol is way down. How can this happen you ask?

I chatted about it with the doctor some. The best we can figure this out is that I have been cooking most of the recipes for the last year from Cooking Light Magazine (which features fresh ingredients and techniques to lower the fat) plus we have not been eating out as much. He was surprised that we could have that much of a turn around. The doctor asked me if I kept the recipes (I did).

Anyway, it was nice to have the fresh ingredients, low fat cooking thing validated. Also, after a whole year, it's still been fun and tasty.

First Aid Quiz - 1911 Version

OK, every year I operate a first aid meet for the local scout district. It involves writing five first aid scenarios, various questions and bonus questions. This year I added a trivia section coinciding with the 100th anniversary of Scouting.

I am willing to share as long as no one tells a scout.

All the trivia questions are multiple choice. Feel free to guess.

1. According to the 1911 scout handbook, which are proper ways to stop a runaway horse and buggy (safety and first aide were combined)?
a. Throw rocks at the horse's head
b. Stand in front of the horse's path and wave arms vigorously
c. Run next to the horse with your hand on the shaft, grab the reigns and pull towards you.
d. Turn the horse toward a wall or a house and they will likely stop

2. Identify what steps you should take for an object in the eye that were included in the 1911 handbook but no longer included in current instructions.
a. Use a toothpick or the tip of a knife to gently scrape the object out
b. Hold the victim's opposite nostril closed and have them blow vigorously as if sneezing
c. Use a drop of Castor oil to soothe the eye after the object was removed
d. Hold the victim upside down and shake, letting gravity dislodge the offending object

3. Can you identify which of the following instructions or items about heatstroke were included in the the 1911 handbook?
a. Sunstroke and not heatstroke was mentioned
b. Prevent heatstroke by wearing leaves under your hat
c. In severe cases encourage the cooling aspects of arterial circulation by applying leeches to the extremities
d. Reduce body temperature by burying the victim up to their neck in cool dirt such as peat, mud or sand near the waterline.

4. Please identify the two treatments for shock that were included in the 1911 handbook but seem to be missing in the current edition:
a. Stimulate the victim by pressing sharp objects against the sensitive regions of the feet
b. Have the victim drink hot coffee or tea or a mixture of aromatic spirits of ammonia and water.
c. Slap the victim vigorously on the cheek, avoiding the eye socket, to divert their immediate attention and to elicit a clarity of the mind.

5. Identify which of the following were required to earn the first aid merit badge according to the 1911 Boy Scout Handbook:
a. Demonstrate the Sylvester and Schaefer methods of resuscitation
b. Carry a person down a ladder
c. Treat mangling injury of the leg without severe hemorrhage.
d. Show treatment for bite of finger by mad dog
e. Demonstrate rescue of person in contact with electric wire
f. State the chief differences between carbolic poisoning and intoxication

I have Been Busy On The Net, Just Not Here

Folks, for the last couple of weeks I have been busy on the web, just not on the blog. I have been working as a volunteer with the Connecticut Rivers Council (BSA) on their web presence. It started with my work on a local district, then I analyzed the entire council presence and lastly I was asked to put together a web page for the 100th anniversary.

Well, one thing led to another and my redesign of the site is being implemented, I have been revising their web pages and featuring more interaction, better abilities to react, etc. I have moved on to creating a marketing campaign, setting up a you tube site, facebook accounts and group and a twitter account. We haven't rolled the sights out publicly yet but we are already getting hits and interest.

I now have the computer ability of a 15 year old boy.

How to be a Volunteer

I don't think its a secret that being a bit immature helps me as a scout leader. The ability and occasional desire to joke and play with the boys has helped establish a relationship. The relationship enables the honest conversation required to influence and help guide these young men.

A willingness and even desire to serve also helps. This provides the example the boys need as well as the essential internal motivation for me to take on those tasks that not everyone is interested is.

The willingness to serve is why, on this election day, I am spending collecting canned food for the local food bank from polling places every two hours. Times are tough and this year the food bank in town (OK, my old town) is relatively empty and there is a pressing need for this election day drive to be successful. In fact, this is the first year we have ever seen so many people withdrawing food while we deliver more. I do feel honored to serve.

The food bank is in the town hall in the back stage section of the old High School auditorium. To get there you must either enter the building after descending a flight of stairs or a long switch-back ramp. My first delivery was large and after carrying a couple of bags down to the food pantry I returned for another load and brought along one of the food pantry shopping carts for the return trip.

But there is that immaturity thing and a ramp and a cart.

Does it ruin the volunteerism elan when you ride the cart down the ramp?

The Axis Powers Are Still Trying to Kill My Mother

I remember the first time I heard about the plot to kill my mother. I was young, maybe ten or eleven and sitting at the kitchen table. I was too young to understand the import of what she was saying then, but slowly, over the years, the evidence was amassed and the conspiracy was uncovered.

Here is what I was able to deduce:

• The Axis cabal started initiated World War II at a time of diminished industrial capacity and when food was labor intensive to produce.


• They sucked up all the labor of the allied countries into vast pools that were designated as "Armies" and "Navies" depriving the agricultural economies of a key resource.


• Furthermore, through overt aggression, the Axis powers contributed to an political evaluation and prioritization of these "Armies" and "Navies" and diverted critical food products to them.


• Finally, the axis powers employed tactics that encouraged food scarcity; capturing food producing regions in Europe, employing blockades that restricted commerce, the conversion of critical farm land to war production, and the diversion of petro-chemicals from farm use (tractors, pesticides) to war uses.

Alone this appears to be normal by products of warfare. But, this came at a curious time in industrial agriculture. More directly, this was shortly after the invention of a butter substitute called "Margarine". Margarine was an effective substitute but lacked the flavor, texture or color of butter. If you are to hear Mom talk about it, the 1940s version of margarine was particularly repulsive.

Thus, an impressionable girl at a formative age was deprived of a critical comfort food at a momentous time. Later, having achieved an economical stability Mom replaced her margarine (but not her children's) with artery clogging butter. We were all treated to long winded explanations about how the Nazis deprived her of this staff of life as a child, the very horrors of early margarine, and how now, as an adult, she was entitled and even required as a 1944 scrap drive activist to eat butter rather than margarine.

How very diabolical those evil Axis mad men were to trade four years of gustatory deprivation for forty years of slowly built up cholesterol. A lasting attack on the "not quite old enough to be the greatest generation".