Webelos was Re: "outside of a dog"

[Jonathan Lighter]

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
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> 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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>
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