“We are the true Scouts, true blue are we...” [WGG]

100 years ago today – February 8, 1910 – William D. Boyce incorporated the Boy Scouts of America. Popular legend says that Boyce first learned of the Scouting movement organized by Lord Robert Baden-Powell from an Unknown Scout that gave him directions on a foggy London street in late 1909.

In a 1990 article with the Haverhill Eagle-Tribune, when asked about his childhood, John Bellairs noted that he was somewhat of a loner until he made some "lifelong friends in the Boy Scouts" and some of these memories have carried over into his books. Like John, Johnny Dixon was a member of Troop 112 and meets a lifelong friend in Byron “Fergie” Ferguson at camp [The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt]. Lewis Barnavelt is a Scout, too – a member of New Zebedee’s Troop “One-thirty-three” [The Whistle, the Grave, and the Ghost].

Time Capsule: 1820

January 1820: 190 years ago this month, the John Keats poem, “Ode on a Grecian Urn” was first published. The five stanzas that make up the well-known verse include such lines as:

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter

And:

O Attic shape! Fair attitude! with brede of marble men and maidens overwrought

As well as the oft-quoted ending:

Beauty is truth, truth beauty

During Bellairs' teaching stint in Minnesota, he joined "the baroque process of academic publishing" by trying his hand at some literary criticism including an extended essay about Keats’ poem. Variations on a Vase features Bellairs the bravely confronting three revered Keats scholars and wittily blowing their analysis out of the water. The article was first published in the Southern Review of Adalaide, South Australia, with analysis from two University of Adelaide professors, unimpressed and somewhat incensed by Bellairs' attacks.

"...the professor’s famous German chocolate cake." [DDZ]

We were alerted to the fact that today is National Chocolate Cake Day. Yes, it was news to us, too. Unsurprisingly this bit of information did not come with any free samples of celebratory...well, cake...that one would expect for such festivities, leaving us to circle this date with a crimson red marker and wait until next year (if only for the free samples).

Still, we couldn’t think of anyone better prepared to celebrate than Professor Childermass, who we feel would probably whip up one of his infamous Sacher tortes, Black Forest, or German chocolate cakes.

Strike that: he’d probably bake something regardless of the day – holiday or not.

Anyway, what’s for desert?

Goreyana: The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt

A new year, a new review of Edward Gorey's artwork at Goreyana.  Today we learn about the artwork from The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt and why it pays to know what you're buying. 

More from "Widow's Walk Lake"

Filmmaker and Bellairs-fan James Strayer passes along the teaser trailer for his film, Widow's Walk Lake.