<B>Scouts’ honor</B> One can’t say “Be prepared” without acknowledging the originator of the phrase: Lord Robert Baden-Powell. This year sees the reprinting of Baden-Powell’s 1908 book that started it all, <B>Scouting for Boys</B>, with a new introduction by Elleke Boemer. This new edition is a delight for fathers who once were or now have Boy Scouts, and a remarkable look into the mind of an unusual man and the culture that influenced him. Some of the ideas are archaic, but there is an underlying faith in the commonality of men and more specifically boys that wells up throughout the book. Baden-Powell’s call for both boys (and girls) to be their best and “do a good turn daily” remains compelling, and the stories, games and skills he writes about are as stirring to the boyish soul as they were nearly a century ago.
<I>Howard Shirley is a writer and father in Nashville.</I>
