January 19
...serving up your daily dish.
Into our mailbox last night: the announcement of a new Brownie troop in Montclair.
Also of note is that the troop is in the midst of the annual Girl Scout Cookie sale, so be on the lookout for a Brownie going door-to-door on your block. Not only are Girl Scout Cookies delicious, kosher, and a bargain at $3.50 a box, but the funds will help pay for the girls' first camping trip in the spring or summer. As part of the Girl Scouts' Gift of Caring program the girls wll be donating boxes of cookies to surviving victims of the Asian tsunami through a local Red Cross office.
Sorry, we couldn't help ourselves. We're sure Girl Scout cookies will really hit the spot in Indonesia. Good luck and welcome, Troop 239! Put us down for one Thin Mints and two Peanut Butter Sandwiches.
Not that I'm given to "outrage", but I don't get what's funny here. Are you saying it's a dumb or ineffective thing to send cookies to people who are suffering? Let me get this straight-- you're making fun of the local Girl Scouts?!? Maybe you *should* look into "helping yourself" or at least make sure your tasteless humor doesn't hurt the LITTLE KIDS of Montclair. Sheesh is right!
Posted by: Dan | Jan 19, 2005 9:06:13 AM
Dan needs to adjust his meds. If sending cookies to tsunami victims is supposed to be a lesson, it is a bad lesson, like the father who recently taught his children to abandon sick animals.
Posted by: Kevin Lee Allen | Jan 19, 2005 10:29:24 AM
Chill out Dan. Cookies to me sound a lot better than a 50 pound bag of rice.
One word of advice, the thin mints may not handle shipping well in this tropical region.
Posted by: Twinkle toes | Jan 19, 2005 10:32:27 AM
While well-intentioned, I think it's wrong and pointless. What the tsunami victims need is fresh, wholesome, nutritious food, that will help bolster their immune systems and build up their strength while they rebuild their respective countries. Will someone please enlighten me how Girl Scout cookies fit into this picture?
Posted by: Miss Martta | Jan 19, 2005 10:39:49 AM
Well even a box of thin mints is more than Kofi and son sent to Iraq in their Foor for Oil Scam.
Posted by: Right of Center | Jan 19, 2005 10:40:21 AM
For everyone's information, the girls (who have an average of a 6) had to decide on a place to donate cookies themselves. Since just about everyone, no matter their age, has been affected by the overwhelming tragedy of the disaster, it was the first thing they suggested. Make fun if you like.
Posted by: Charles Burns | Jan 19, 2005 10:44:46 AM
Thanks Charles, I am glad such young tikes are being encouraged to give in any way they can imagine.
"I tossed some money to the American Red Cross tonight (Amazon makes it very easy) and did so with a small amount of self-disgust. At least now I know the death toll that gets me to open up the wallet. From now on my guidelines will be “earlier” and “more.” It’s not for the dead we send the money, of course – it’s for those whose lives have been scoured down to the bone, but you can’t help but think that your contribution somehow mitigates the awful numbers. It doesn’t. And if your money makes its way to a small village, and ends up as a box of clean underwear and toothpaste and batteries and aspirin dropped in the lap of a man who watched his entire family scraped off the face of the earth and swallowed by the brutal, implacable and mindless hand of nature, well, know that it probably won’t make much difference. It can’t. But someone has to get him clean underwear and aspirin. You there, with the drawers full of Jockeys and Bayer: cough up."
-James Lileks
http://www.lileks.com/bleats/archive/04/1204/122904.html
Posted by: Right of Center | Jan 19, 2005 10:47:48 AM
Look, they only way we can prevent cookies getting shipped, is for all of us to buy out the troops alloted batch of cookies. Where's the sale?
They freeze real well.
Posted by: Twinkle Toes | Jan 19, 2005 10:50:38 AM
Kudos to the Brownies -- I like their troop spirit!!!
Seriously -- I'd like to buy 5 boxes of Thin Mints and send matching boxes for the tsunami victims. The kids have the right idea -- essentials are just that, essentials, but cookies make people happy. If only we can get them some cold milk to wash it down...
(Where can we buy them...)
Posted by: Liz | Jan 19, 2005 10:55:49 AM
The girls will be selling cookies door-to-door in and around Montclair until the end of January. The troop will be having a booth sale at an as-yet undecided location sometime in the next few months. Watch the website (http://www.montclair-troop239.org) for details.
Posted by: Charles Burns | Jan 19, 2005 10:58:01 AM
I think we have lash to backlash in record time!
Posted by: Right of Center | Jan 19, 2005 10:58:30 AM
has anyone any shame for making fun of:
http://www.montclair-troop239.org/images/troop239.jpg
??
Posted by: Right of Center | Jan 19, 2005 11:01:50 AM
No one is making fun of the girls. There is disgust at the lessons their leaders are choosing to teach/reinforce.
Posted by: Kevin Lee Allen | Jan 19, 2005 11:10:17 AM
"There is disgust at the lessons their leaders are choosing to teach/reinforce."
well, just maybe, their leaders know the little girls a little better that you do and what kind of lessons are enriching.
"disgust" ?? please.
Posted by: Right of Center | Jan 19, 2005 11:14:38 AM
I think the Barista is just trying to make up for the record lack of posts yesterday by putting up something she knows will get us going.
The charities I have contacted asked that people send money. Not food, not clothes, just money. That way they can be flexible in response to whatever the needs at the time are.
I think the girl scouts wanting to help is admirable and an excellent lesson. Perhaps they can be convinced to donate the proceeds of the sale of the cookies rather than the cookies themselves?
Posted by: Lex | Jan 19, 2005 11:15:01 AM
I know this will make everyone moan but the Blue/Red divide is presented even in this discussion.
The blue tendency to 'Group-Think' how *others* should teach lessons to *their* children is symptomatic of a larger ill.
After all isn't that what the Department of Education is about? Can't let people decide for themselves how their own children should be taught with their own money in their own communities - how disgusting!
Posted by: Right of Center | Jan 19, 2005 11:18:42 AM
But lex, you are right about B's motivations. She has been chumming for awhile without any bites!
Posted by: Right of Center | Jan 19, 2005 11:19:46 AM
Disgust at teaching the girls that donating whatever they may have available to donate to people who have suffered a terrible disaster is wrong?
The girls made the choice of where to donate the cookies themselves, in an obvious effort to do what THEY could do to help. 6-year-old girls can't tap into their bank accounts.
The lesson here is that giving whatever you may have to give to people in need is worthwhile.
Posted by: Charles Burns | Jan 19, 2005 11:20:48 AM
"Perhaps they can be convinced to donate the proceeds of the sale of the cookies rather than the cookies themselves?"
Finally, a voice of reason!
Posted by: Miss Martta | Jan 19, 2005 11:20:59 AM
"Perhaps they can be convinced..."
Perhaps we should butt-out!
Posted by: Right of Center | Jan 19, 2005 11:22:39 AM
Right of Center--
Are we surprised that liberals have an idea of how other people can better spend their own money?
;)
My original point has been twisted too much. Here it is in plain language: Calling a Girl Scout project "stupid" is going to hurt the feelings of our children. Questioning/ridiculing the charity of others is something only the most foolhardy person would do. Really, what kind of person would question the charitable donation of a Girl Scout troop?
Posted by: Dan | Jan 19, 2005 11:34:59 AM
*I'm* a self-proclaimed "liberal" in most ways, and even *I* agree with you here Dan. The girls are trying to do something that's within THEIR personal power to help.
And while cookies may not solve all the world's problems, they ARE what the troop has to donate. The GSUSA does not allow donating $ from the sale of cookies in place of the cookies.
Posted by: Charles Burns | Jan 19, 2005 11:43:07 AM
No one here is attacking the Girl Scouts and their intentions, Dan. Just the practicality of sending cookies to people overwhelmed by a disaster. They need money, REAL food (not junk food), medical supplies, appropriate clothing, etc. I mean, it's ludicrous to think of a social worker in Aceh saying to a victim, "I know you just lost your whole family in the tsunami and your house, hell, your whole village has been destroyed and you're desperate for clean water and dry clothes, but here's a box of cookies to make things better!" WTF?
Posted by: Miss Martta | Jan 19, 2005 11:46:51 AM
Charles is spot-on!
But Charles why the scare quotes around your self proclimation of Liberal?
I never understand why Liberals are sooooo nervous about the term. Some much so that they seem eager to progress on to other even less descriptive terms.
Posted by: Right of Center | Jan 19, 2005 11:48:48 AM
