HR Puffin' Stuff (seen here) is wasted and is carrying what looks like some kind of weapon in public! What a country!
Posted on 05/24/2007 5:21:13 PM PDT by sig226
A New Book Teaches Boys Old-Fashioned Ways to Play
If these questions make you cringe, fear not. Help has arrived in the form of "The Dangerous Book for Boys" -- a sort of "how to" guide to life and play for young boys that is enjoying sudden and sensational success.
"Dangerous" came out at the beginning of May with a modest printing of 91,000 copies. Just three weeks later, according to publisher Harper Collins, the book is in its fifth run. Now 405,000 copies are in print, many of them prominently displayed in the nation's bookstores. "This is really, truly remarkable," Harper Collins editor Matthew Benjamin told ABC News. "We just don't see those kinds of numbers."
The book is a menu of activities and articles designed to feed a boy's imagination and fuel his desire to play, explore and take risks. It includes sections on bugs, battles and baseball. There are instructions for building a tree house, a bow and arrow ("You will need flint or bone for arrowheads") and the "greatest paper airplane in the world."
If none of this seems "dangerous," the book also includes a chapter on "Hunting and Cooking a Rabbit" (along with a section on how to skin it), another on "How to Play Poker" and advice on what many boys perceive as the most risky activity of all -- talking to girls.
Still if the title seems too overblown for what is essentially a Boy Scout manual on steroids, Conn Iggulden, one of the book's authors, explained that it's meant to harken "back to a time when the word 'dangerous' wasn't a dirty one."
Iggulden added, "Ask any man about a treasured memory from childhood and they'll tell you something that involves overcoming danger. . ."
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
I'd kinda like to see the greatest paper airplane in the world, but I bet most of us go right to the chapter on talking to girls. :)
Aimed right at straight 27 year old modern males, eh?
“a modest printing of 91,000 copies”
Maybe in Bizarro World.
My copy is on the way. Mrs Bear and I have been talking about fostering. Something like this should come in handy.
Those Born 1930-1979
READ TO THE BOTTOM FOR QUOTE OF THE MONTH BY JAY LENO. IF YOU DON’T READ ANYTHING ELSE-—VERY WELL STATED
TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1930’s, 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s!!
First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn’t get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.
As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags.
Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank Kool-aid made with sugar, but we weren’t overweight because,
WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo’s, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD’s, no surround-sound or CD’s, no cell phones, no personal computer! s, no Internet or chat rooms........
WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!
If YOU are one of them...CONGRATULATIONS!
You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good.
While you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave (and lucky) their parents were.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn’t it?!
The quote of the month is by Jay Leno:
“With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?”
For those that prefer to think that God is not watching over us...go ahead and delete this.
For the rest of us...pass this on.
And no one I grew up with ever wore a bicycle helmet, either.
An old illustrated Boy's book of my husband's grandfather has a chapter on Basic Taxidermy! And another chapter that shows him how to build contraptions such as a pair of wing kites that he can wear while ice skating, to do a kind of ice sailing, I guess.
Young human males need to experience danger and adventure. It's in their nature and it's a good thing. God help us when we discourage it "for their own good." We'd never be able to quash it anyway. Might as well try to stop the tides.
HR Puffin' Stuff (seen here) is wasted and is carrying what looks like some kind of weapon in public! What a country!
Just a guess, but I’m thinking conquest games involving live fire are excluded. They probably wouldn’t care too much for Roman Candle duels we fought on Bayview Beach, either. Oh, my misspent youth. :)
You may like the book by John Eldridge, “Wild At Heart”.
>> essentially a Boy Scout manual on steroids
In my old Scout manual there was a “Health” chapter, which featured a beat-around-the-bush (no pun intended) discussion of self-abuse and stern warnings on the harm it would cause.
My guess is, that’s been updated for modern times — replaced by a few pages of advice on how to score with the teacher.
I could go on for nearly ever...
Ordered one for my boy.
He’s a cub scout and will eat this stuff up.
He’ll cherish this book as much as I did my boy scout handbook, but I didn’t get it until I was 12, he’s 9.
Thanks for the post, this is awesome.
Got it. I also bought a copy to give to a problem child who works for me.
If you like “Wild At Heart,” check out “No More Christian Nice Guy” by Paul Coughlin. Eldridge tells you the “What.” Coughlin tells you the “How.”
“Ask any man about a treasured memory from childhood and they’ll tell you something that involves overcoming danger. . .”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Overcoming the danger of getting a good azzwhupping was one of my big problems. My Mama believed sparing the rod would spoil the child. My dad worked most of the time and she didnt wait for him to mete out punishment. He held down 3 jobs and didnt play baseball with us, we bonded in the tobacco field with a hoe in our hands. Or in the barn stripping it. When he was home he was working on the farm when he wasnt he was driving the school bus ,or working as a part time feed salesman. He helped start the Volunteer Fire Dept. and was Chairman for the United Givers Fund. He died at 52 with the biggest funeral ever seen in these parts.
My treasured Childhood memories are of my father and the times I worked with him. He has been gone 48 years now.I was 17 when he died. They dont make many men like that these days.
My treasured Childhood memories are of my father and the times I worked with him. He has been gone 48 years now.I was 17 when he died. They dont make many men like that these days.
Damn it, but you were blessed.
Boy scout list?
This book highly endorsed on the scouter forums. Great gift for the scout or scouter in your life.
Wow.
You had a great childhood.
(These are a few of my favorite things.......cue music)
:-)
I think I’d love (and did most) of what is in this book. Only part I’d probably keep out would be skinning a rabbit. Probably replace it with deer hunting. I have six house rabbits who are as engaging as any dog or cat I have known.
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