Mr. Smith and I both thought that Order of the Arrow was a popularity contest that drained the most capable boys out of the troop. Our troop didn't have it, and I think benefited. It was nice to be on the same side of a conflict as he was, for once. I sure hope I told him that. 8/8

One of the few things we saw eye-to-eye on was Order of the Arrow, which was one of the Boy Scouts’ ways of trying to keep older boys engaged. It was an honor society that boys could be elected to and that had its own independent activities. 7/8

When offered the choice between 1) working on Emergency Preparedness Merit Badge with 6th graders or 2) do something else, possibly something with girls, the 14-18 year old boys I knew were going to check out Option 2. 6/8

He had his work cut out for him though. Like every Boy Scout Troop everywhere, our Troop had a tough time retaining boys after they hit high school. 5/8

We didn’t agree on much. We argued about religion, the role of older boys in the Troop and plenty of other things. I respected but did not like him, and the feeling was mutual. 4/8

He didn’t understand that teenagers need some conflict with authority figures, and that it helps to have an authority figure who is safe to rebel against a little. 3/8

Yes and: he wasn’t wired to connect with teenage boys. Having been a dutiful, regulated boy who became a dutiful, regulated man, it was hard for him to put himself in the shoes of boys who weren’t dutiful or regulated. 2/8

That is the most Portland thing anyone has ever said.

You might want to try joining a job search council through the Never Search Alone website. I'm on a job search council and I think it's helping my job search. LMK if you have any questions about it.

I volunteered for the No On 9 campaign. Measure 9 vandalized Oregon's constitution to state that homosexuality is "abnormal, wrong, unnatural, and perverse".

Measure 9 would have put my co-volunteers in danger for no reason. That day I learned that no one else should get to tell you who you are.

The only piece of 1E art with a person of color that I can think of is the cover of the Oriental Adventures book. You can’t see the samurai’s face well and you can’t see the ninja’s face at all, but yeah, there’s an argument to be made that the swarthy, grimacing samurai is stereotypical.

There's an excelllent YA novel called The Green Glass Sea, by Ellen Klages that is set in Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project. The characters mention my former neighbor Jean Nereson, who was one of the first teachers in Manhattan Project-era LA.