About Us
Mission Statement
Rules of Conduct
 
Name:
Pswd:
Remember Me
Register
 

Cleaning out the drawer of the Blog mind...
Author: TriSec    Date: 03/21/2009 12:46:02

With the usual apologies to Bob Ryan, from whom I shamelessly steal this idea from time to time.


So, show of hands....how many of you out there think maple syrup comes from a bottle at the supermarket? I asked this question at a Cub Scout meeting about 3 weeks back, and surprisingly enough, a handful of my urban scouts did indeed raise their hands!

You poor folks that live far away from the Northern Tier....if you're using Aunt Jemima, Mrs. Butterworth's or worse, the store brand....that ain't syrup.




According to Native American oral tradition, maple syrup and maple sugar were being made long before Europeans began to record North American history. Native Americans in Eastern North America were the first to discover "sinzibuckwud," the Algonquin word for maple syrup, meaning "drawn from wood."

The Algonquins were the first to recognize the sap as a source of energy and nutrition. They would use a tomahawk to make a V-shaped incision in the tree. Then, they would insert reeds or concave pieces of bark to run the sap into buckets made from birch bark. The sap was slightly concentrated, either by throwing hot stones in the bucket, or by leaving it overnight and disposing of the layer of ice which had formed on top. It was drunk as a sweet drink or used in cooking.

To boil the water, they used a cauldron made of cooked earth. They boiled maple sap over simple fires protected only by a roof of tree branches. This was the first version of the sugar shack. Over the years, this method has evolved to the point where the sugar shack is not only a place where maple syrup is produced, but also a gathering place where a traditional meal can be enjoyed.


Given the warm days and still below freezing nights this time of year...the sap is running! We'll be off to Breakheart Reservation in my ancestral hometown of Saugus today to take in the maple sugar program with the Cub Scout Pack. It's quite a thing, and we'll be out in the woods a while identifying and tapping trees, and hauling some sap back to boil. Of course, there will be samples!

And if you've never had 100% pure maple syrup, I highly recommend that you do so. Once you taste the real stuff, you'll never go back.



Speaking of scouting, I saw a story in the Globe today about the Girl Scouts. Most of you know about Lord Baden-Powell and the Boy Scouts...but the Girl Scouts are just as significant. In fact, it was Baden-Powell's wife that was an early influence and leader of the then "Girl Guides", as the founder thought that girls should not be in an organization meant for boys. Unfortunately, they've been having the same membership problems as the boys in recent years, so they're trying a few new things to liven things up.


NEW BEDFORD - The 13 girls gathered in Room 341 of Normandin Middle School recited the Girl Scout Law. "I will do my best," they said, "to be honest and fair, friendly and helpful, considerate and caring, courageous and strong. . . ." Next they created jewelry from old newspapers and plastic beads in preparation for a spring fashion show of clothes and accessories made from recycled materials.

These dues-paying Girl Scouts do not belong to a troop. They do not earn badges. They do not sell cookies. Instead, they represent the vanguard of efforts to revamp Girl Scouts for the 21st century. They enroll by the activity, as the Scouts introduce different ways to connect with girls who lack the time or inclination or opportunity to join a traditional troop.

"Most people think Girl Scouts is weird, but it's awesome," said Delana Baldwin, a 13-year-old with nails polished green on one hand and black on the other who was rolling newspaper beads. "They think it's just selling cookies. It's not. It's really fun stuff." And the Girl Scout Law? "It's awesome," Baldwin said. "It shows what we should do in life. We have to show ourselves positively to the world."

In a sweeping self-examination aimed at jump-starting sagging membership, the Girl Scouts are emphasizing their mission to develop the leadership potential of girls. They've launched new programs that tap into relevant issues of the day, including "Project Re- Runway," a joint after-school apprenticeship with Citizen Schools in New Bedford and a national collaboration with Microsoft on Internet safety and social networking. They've unveiled a new uniform of khaki pants or skirt and a white shirt topped by a vest or sash. They've hired a veteran advertising executive to freshen the brand. The changes culminate a process that began in 2004 to address membership that's fallen 8 percent since 1999, to 2.5 million, as well as an outdated volunteer system and programming in need of focus.

Cookies and camping remain, as do badges and troops led by mothers, but the Scouts last fall inaugurated a "Journeys" program that lists activities for girls to follow on their own or in a group. In the first, "It's Your World - Change It," a middle schooler might explore friendship by inviting a new girl to a movie and a high schooler might try advocacy by organizing a project on sexual harassment.

Victoria Davis, 13, of Lynn, reconnected with an elementary school friend to fulfill a Journey task of talking to a classmate outside her social circle. "I had been sitting in front of her in class," Davis said. "When it came up as an activity, I said, I'll do it. It will probably make me a better person." The second Journey program, the environmentally themed "It's Your Planet - Love It," will be ready next fall.

Continued...


Lastly this morning...let's talk about bowling. The President is famously bad at at bowling, and has managed to offend a lot of sensible bowlers with his game. But I think the real problem is the bowling itself. The White House bowling alley is....Tenpin!

Here in Massachusetts, at least....that isn't bowling! Since we hardy New Englanders prefer things to be difficult and frustrating, we've devised a different style of bowling called candlepin bowling. The President's 129 would actually be considered a decent score for a beginning candlepin bowler...


Candlepin bowling was developed in 1880 in Worcester, Massachusetts by a local bowling center owner, Justin White, some years before both the standardization of the tenpin sport in 1895, and the invention of duckpin bowling. As in other forms of bowling, the players roll balls down a wooden pathway (lane) to knock down as many pins as possible.

The main differences between candlepin bowling and the predominant ten-pin bowling style are that each player uses three balls per frame (see below), the balls are much smaller (11.43 cm, or 4.5" diameter) and do not have holes, the downed pins (known as 'wood') are not cleared away between balls during a player's turn, and the pins are thinner, and thus harder to knock down.

Because of these differences, scoring points is considerably more difficult than in ten-pin bowling, and the highest officially sanctioned score ever recorded is 245 out of a possible 300 points.



It's finally spring! If you can, make sure to get outside today and enjoy the turning of the seasons, and take a moment to review the list of blog birthdays this weekend!




 

16 comments (Latest Comment: 03/22/2009 02:31:02 by Will in Chicago)
   Perma Link

Share This!

Furl it!
Spurl
NewsVine
Reddit
Technorati