Webelos was Re: "outside of a dog"

[Bill Palmer]

How 'bout the preliminary level of ":Bobcat"?

Bill P
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jonathan Lighter" <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, June 26, 2010 7:21 PM
Subject: Re: Webelos was Re: "outside of a dog"


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Webelos was Re: "outside of a dog"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> When I was a Cub Scout, back in the Eisenhower administration, we had
> Wolf,
> Bear, Lion, and Webelos levels.
>
> No "Tiger."
>
> JL
>
> On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 9:57 AM, Neal Whitman
> <nwhitman at ameritech.net>wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Neal Whitman <nwhitman at AMERITECH.NET>
>> Subject:      Re: Webelos was Re: "outside of a dog"
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> I never knew about the Lion scout level, though I did have the feeling
>> (when
>> my son joined up) that the first-grade Tiger level was a recent addition.
>> Cub Scout organizers seem to be confused, mixing up Asian, African, and
>> North American animals and folklore. They talk about "Akelas" as adult
>> leaders, a term lifted from _The Jungle Book_, but also like to bring in
>> Native American stuff.
>>
>> Webelos (sorry, I just can't capitalize the whole thing) may be presented
>> as
>> an acronym, but it's an unfortunate one because it ends in <s>, inviting
>> it
>> to be interpreted as a plural. Indeed, the <s> is pronounced like a
>> plural
>> [z] ending, and the backformation "Webelo" is the standard term for one
>> such
>> scout. If "Webelo" is an acronym, it would have to stand for just
>> "We('ll)
>> be loyal." In fact, if "Webelos" were truly used as an acronym, the
>> singular
>> should be "IBeLoS." And (I'm not done yet) why does loyalty alone get
>> elevated from the Boy Scout oath into this acronym? To be consistent,
>> they
>> should have "WeBeTruLoHelFrienCurKiObCheeThrifBraCleRevS". Oh, well,
>> maybe
>> they're talking about meta-loyalty, loyalty encompassing ordinary loyalty
>> and all the other scout virtues.
>>
>> Neal
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Laurence Horn" <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 2010 9:30 AM
>> Subject: Re: Webelos was Re: Re: "outside of a dog"
>>
>>
>> > ---------------------- Information from the mail
>> > header -----------------------
>> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> > Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>> > Subject:      Re: Webelos was Re: Re: "outside of a dog"
>> >
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >
>> > At 8:48 AM -0400 6/15/10, Amy West wrote:
>> >>On 6/15/10 12:00 AM, Automatic digest processor wrote:
>> >>>   remember it well, having been
>> >>>a Cub Scout for the whole Webelos trajectory--"Wolf Bear Lion
>> >>>Scout"--but I dropped out before the Tenderfoot stage
>> >>Interesting. I was recently told by scouts in Mass. it stood for "We be
>> >>loyal scouts."
>> >>
>> >>Another folk initialism/acronym?
>> >>
>> >>--
>> >>---Amy West
>> >>
>> > Looks like we're both (essentially) right:
>> >
>> > ===========
>> > WEBELOS is an acronym, according to the BSA's public relations and
>> > media relations guides, and therefore should appear in ALL CAPS as
>> > written above.
>> >
>> > The acronym, thought up in the early 40s, does NOT presently stand
>> > for "Wolf, Bear, Lion, Scout" as before; it now stands for "WE'll BE
>> > LOyal Scouts!". The WEBELOS Cub Scout program replaced the Lion Cub
>> > Scout program in 1966 and became a part of the Cub Scout Program in
>> > 1967.
>> >
>> > http://www.mninter.net/~blkeagle/webelos.htm
>> > ==========
>> >
>> > I prefer Amy's version with the invariant "be", but I guess this way
>> > individual dens and troops can decide on the appropriate verb form
>> > for themselves.
>> >
>> > LH (a.k.a. Automatic digest processor)
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
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>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
>
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