Son of Speedy Internet Connections

This is supposed to be about Holmes, not the Camp Office computer. But right after telling our correspondents we were unlikely to ever have a fast connection and warning them about sending big files, an opportunity that we had not heard of before popped up and we signed on. Regulars and members have been notified of the new e-mail address that resulted (see also the “Join up” page).

For the curious, it is a wireless connection through the Alltel cell phone system. You get a little gizmo not as big as a spectacles case, that plugs into a USB port. I think it could best be described as a cell phone lacking a speaker, microphone and keypad. By getting rid of the old provider, the extra phone line, and then switching phone service, the cost is about a wash, or maybe a dollar or two favorable. And it works great. Up-front cost after a rebate was under $100.

Speedy Internet Connections

If you have one, great. Most people do these days. Those of us living in tree-filled valleys out in the pineries do not, and have little prospect of getting one anytime soon. So if you are inclined to e-Mail graphics-laden multi-meg files to the Camp Office, please check first. Maybe we can work out a better way, or a convenient time.

Logo

We don’t have one, but might like to. Are there any specialists or experts out there who want to help? My belief is that a good logo should be simple, recognizable, and uncluttered, but not dippy. Should it be Homes-oriented, lumber camp-oriented, or combine the two themes in a clever manner? I would not call this an urgent issue but if anyone wants to pick up the ball and run with it, then everybody else take one step backwards. Contact Matilda by e-Mail or submit a comment.

J. F. Christ Abbreviations

Sherlockians often refer to the stories and novels of The Canon by a four-letter all-caps abbreviation. In our posts and articles we shall make it a practice to write out story names with the abbreviation in parentheses, as was done in the article in the Activities page. In casual correspondence we may use abbreviations alone. If you are not skilled at communicating using this “code” you can find it lots of places. Just Google JF Christ abbreviations.

With the exception of titles involving a number, CHAS, mentioned as part of our members’ assignments, is one of only two (do you know the other?) that doesn’t simply use four ordered letters of the main words in the title as the abbreviation. Must be because “Chas” is a common abbreviation for ”Charles”. It would be easy to draw oneself into an argument on this subject. Even more interesting, why do titles containing a number not follow a consistent pattern? For example, 3GAR, 3GAB, and 3STU are used, but not 5ORA or 6NAP. You could further complicate the question by thinking about ordinal and cardinal numbers, maybe coming up with 2NDS or 2STA instead of SECO.

If any of you campers wish to achieve eternal fame, you may submit a brief monograph on this phenomenon as a comment, or e-Mail it to the Camp Office.

“Camp” Theme, and Scion Name

Those qualified as charter members all know the origin of the Scion’s name, McMurdo’s Camp. (Details omitted here for reasons that should become apparent.) To find out more about McMurdo’s Camp and to become a member (either local or “cyber”) see the “McMurdo’s Camp – Join Up” page. There is no cost or obligation.

Without trying to be too cute, we often use the term “Camp” to refer to our organization and ourselves. For example, in many Scion Societies, members adopt a “Canonical Name”. We encourage our members to do the same, but we use the term “Camp Name”. Members of McMurdo’s Camp are known as “campers” (and if contented, winsome, and serene, possibly as “happy campers”). We maintain this trifling distinction as part of our organizational culture. Special recognition will be granted to any camper who comes up with a novel and interesting way to expand use of the term.

News (and Rumor) from the Pineries

McMurdo’s Camp has an official newsletter. We call it News (and Rumor) from the Pineries. The term “Pineries” refers to the lumber camps of the North. In my hometown in the farming country of Wisconsin, the weekly newspaper likes to run a feature called “from Early Files”. It is not much of a paper, but has the distinction of being quite old. “One-hundred and forty-eight years old, and new every Thursday” on the masthead, depending on the current year, of course. They often have stories from McMurdo’s time of the local farm boys spending the winter up North in what they called “The Pineries”, where there was money to be made logging when the farms were dormant.

Since we take our name from the lumber camps of Michigan and are headquartered where there were plenty of lumber camps, “Pineries” seems to fit.

Articles from “News (and Rumor)” are included as Posts in the McMurdo’s Camp blog site.

Local Organizational Meeting

 

February 4, 2008

The first meeting of McMurdo’s Camp was a bust! Despite attempts to generate interest, no-one came. Possibly this was due to inadequate or poorly thought-out efforts, possibly to population numbers, and (I like to think) to the weather. The weather was unusually bad, even for this area at this time of year. We had a somewhat warm day, hovering just above freezing, with rain and sleet in the afternoon, followed around dark by sharply plunging temperatures and a fair amount of lake-effect snow on top of that. The State Police co-operated by advising everyone to stay home.

I took the trusty old Jeep into town to the meeting site against my better judgment, feeling some responsibility since the whole thing was my idea. Later, on the 6-mile drive home, the only other vehicle I saw was the county snowplow.

I thought it would have been clever to hold the first meeting on the 133^rd anniversary of that train ride up the Vermissa Valley, but it was not to be. But we are by no means dead. McMurdo’s camp has seven cyber-members, two of whom are semi-local and one who is a genuine B.S.I., so I’m confident the organization has a future. We will just have to persevere and get it going again, this time a little later, when the “educated leisure class” is back in town. (Charlevoix is a resort community, and loses a lot of its population after the Christmas holidays to Florida and Arizona, etc.) There are a few of us who tough it out.

At this time, any comments from our fans will be most welcome.