The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 5,892 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—8,416 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ

For this week’s Each Other/Know Your Roots Expert Level Merit Badge, I continued where my Intermediate Level left off.

Right at the intersection of Mysterious and Secrets. At the corner of Suspicious and Questions. At the … well, you get my drift.

I was adrift at sea in an ocean of unanswered questions. Call me overly poetic and dramatic, but something was definitely up with my Grandma Barbie. First, she got all weird on me when I mentioned someone named Blaine, and then she hung up on me! Grandmas aren’t allowed to hang up on their granddaughters.

And now, of all the nerve, she is so totally avoiding my phone calls. Ever one step ahead from my ornery grandmother, I borrowed Midge’s phone and dialed the retirement home in Florida one more time.

Not recognizing the number, Grandma Barbie answered cheerfully. “Why, hello, Midge, darling! I’m so glad you called. Could you do me a favor and tell Jane I went away on a cruise or something?”

Me: “Gramma! You are in so much trouble!”

I hear the sound of the phone dropping. Then, “Oh dear. Dear, dear. Well, I always knew this day would come. Hang on, sweetie, I need to refresh my sweet tea if we’re going to go over family history.” I hear her gulp thirstily.

I drum my nails loudly into the speaker as a subtle hint. “You hung up on me, Gramma.”

G.B.: “Yes, I know, dear. I was just so surprised to hear you mention his name after all these years.”

Me: “Who? Blaine? This mysterious fellow from the Outback of Broken Hearts? This Australian Casanova? This …”

G.B.: “You’re being overly dramatic. Now stop getting your knickers in a twist, and I’ll tell you all about it.”

I wrinkle my nose. “Just the facts, ma’am.” The thought of my elderly grandmother getting cozy with anyone gives me a bad case of the no-thank-yous. “Who’s Blaine?”

G.B.: “Well, it was the summer your grandfather and I broke up. It was the late ’60s, you understand, and a time of free love and …”

Me: “BLECH! Get to the point, Grammy!”

G.B.: “Don’t sass me, young lady. Where was I?”

Me: “Making my stomach knot with unnecessary mind pictures.”

G.B.: “Right. Well, anyway, Ken disappeared that year and Blaine was introduced. He was my friend, Summer’s, brother. Remember Summer?”

Me: “Blue hair? Bad driver?”

G.B.: “Well, not back then, but yes. Blaine and I went together for a while. It was a wild time. He was very sweet.”

Me: “Well? And what happened then?”

G.B.: “Well, nothing really. We broke up because Ken came back. Midge started dating Alan. Skipper and Stacie took up a lot of my time. The rest is history.”

Me: “That’s it? Why’d you hang up on me? I thought you were going to reveal some big family secret!”

Grandma laughs. “Oh, Janie, you always were such a worry wart. Now stop poking your nose into my love life, and get crackin’ on yours. Okay, darling?”

I frown. Trust Gramma to spin the situation around. “Okay. But …”

G.B.: “Oh dear, sounds like there’s a bad connection again! Ffklj! Kklmnw?”

Me: “Gramma, you’re just putting your hand over the mouthpiece and making funny noises again, aren’t you?”

G.B.: “Lmeoico? Ajfft!”

Click.

Some critics have called my Grandmother a dumb blonde, but I’m telling you … she’s tricked them all. That woman is deep.

Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)

Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)

My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … CJ Armstrong!!!

CJ Armstrong (ceejay48, #665) has received a certificate of achievement in Garden Gate for earning a Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert Level Weather Merit Badge!

BEGINNER:

How does one describe the Earth’s atmosphere and weather? A very complicated, complex process that we can only begin to understand. Earth’s atmosphere is briefly described as “layers of gas,” which are mostly nitrogen, but contain some oxygen. The short term is “air.” Often, certain air masses remain stationary over certain areas for a time; for example, the air over a tropical climate would become hot and humid. But the masses can shift and could bring changes to an area that are not typical for that region. But the atmosphere is ever-changing and moving, causing a variety of weather conditions. Part of that process causes changes in the atmospheric pressure, and a high-pressure system would indicate good weather, while a low-pressure system means clouds and precipitation are probably in the works.

A barometer is an instrument used to measure atmospheric pressure and can indicate short-term changes in the weather.

Wind is basically movement of air and, briefly described, is formed with changes in the Earth temperatures, with different heating patterns between the equator and the poles, and is affected by the planet’s rotation. Wind is also difficult to describe.

Studying all the elements of how weather is formed is very interesting and very intricate. Some of the other areas I have studied that impact weather are air masses, process of evaporation, jet streams, and El Niño.

INTERMEDIATE:

One could study clouds for a long time and one could watch them form and move on for hours. They are beautiful, interesting, and ever-changing. Basically, clouds are formed of condensed water/ice and are formed when rising air expands and cools to the point that molecules clump together faster than they are torn apart by thermal energy.

Common types of clouds are:

Cumulus, meaning “heap”

Stratus, meaning “layer”

Cirrus, meaning “curl of hair”

Nimbus, meaning “rain”

There are also classifications of high-level, mid-level, low-level, and vertically formed clouds.

I learned to classify clouds a long time ago as a child in school. It’s something that my husband and I still practice so that we have sense of what weather might be coming our way, and it’s something we taught our daughter when she was in school. Very intriguing practice!

EXPERT:

Because of our need to know what weather might impact travel, gardening, building projects, outdoor activities, and numerous other situations or activities, my husband and I have been charting weather in our area for a long time.

We are mindful of what might be ahead before planning any activity or project that is going to be greatly affected by the weather.”

Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)

Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)

My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Nancy Boyd!!!

Nancy Boyd (#2508) has received a certificate of achievement in Cleaning Up for earning a Beginner Level Recycling Merit Badge!

“I researched recycling in my area. This research checked into what my residential garbage hauler would and wouldn’t take. It also included what other opportunities were available for recycling in the Columbus, Ohio, area.

There are a lot of places to recycle items. Even if one place doesn’t accept an item, there is another place that will. There is even going to be an event offered through www.swaco.org and Ohio Health, in partnership with the DEA, that will be a prescription drug take-back day on April 26, 2014, to dispose of unused, old, or unwanted prescription drugs to get them out of the house.”

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 5,892 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—8,416 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ 

For this week’s Each Other/Know Your Roots Intermediate Level Merit Badge, I combed the National Archives, Ancestry.com, my local library, and the depths of my Grandma Barbie’s brain for some interesting and little-known facts/anecdotes/stories about me and mine. It turns out (as projects like this tend to do, my chickadees) that what I didn’t know about me could fill a book.

Strange, no? You’d think I’d be an expert on my family’s history, but it seems I paid about as much attention during holiday dinners reminiscing as I did in Mr. Potter’s fifth-grade history class. So basically, I know my own birthday and the year the Civil War started. I think. (Don’t quiz me. I get all twitchy and clammy when there’s a test coming.)

Finding your roots these days isn’t as difficult as it used to be. Thanks to the ol’ worldwide web thingamabobby, you can get started with something as simple as your mother’s maiden name and birth date, and lo and behold, all sorts of data will practically fall into your lap(top). And once you start? Well, it’s like homemade, organic, sea-salted kettle chips, ladies. It’s hard to stop at just one.

First of all, I opened up my grandma’s box of scrapbooks. Grandma Barbie is a hoarder collector of the finest degree. She saves everything from carefully folded tissue paper to twist ties to greeting cards to wedding invites to baby announcements to high-school-graduation programs to … well, you name it, she has it pasted into a scrapbook somewhere. And then she puts that scrapbook into a box. And then she mails me that box.

Thanks, Grandma.

*sigh*

Anyway, I figured there was more info there I could possibly need for one little ol’ merit badge, and I was correct. I decided to get her on the phone and see if she could possibly whittle down some of our basic family history into something more condensed.

Say, like Tolstoy lengths.

What follows is a transcription of our conversation. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Me: “Grammy! It’s me, your favorite granddaughter in all the land!”

G.B.: “Stacie?”

Me: “Haha, Grandma.”

G.B.: “Tutti?”

Me: “Very funny. It’s me, Jane.”

G.B.: “Oh, I know, honey, I just like pulling your leg. You’ve always been so flexible and bendy.”

Me: “Yes, well, I get it from you. Now, I was going through some old eh, priceless family heirlooms, and had some questions about my family tree. Are you ready?”

G.B.: “Shoot.”

Me: silence. “Pardon me?”

G.B.: “Shoot! Fire away! Proceed!”

Me, thinking the old-time expressions to be very odd indeed, hurried forward (Isn’t there a badge for learning another language? Does grandparent-speak count as an ancient language?): “Well, I was wondering about this Blaine fellow, first off.”

I hear Grandma coughing suddenly on the other end. “What’s that? I can’t hear you, sweetie! I think we have a bad connection!”

Me, suspiciously: “The connection is fine, Grammy. Now, as I was saying. I found these very interesting love letters to you, postmarked from Australia …”

Garbled, incoherent noises fill my ear, and also what sounds like a really bad imitation of static sounds. Then … click!

What in the name of torrid Australian love affairs have I stumbled upon?

Interesting facts about George are as follows, in no particular order other than their fascinating-ness:

• Born in 1898 in Brooklyn, New York to Russian immigrant parents, Morris and Rosa
• Real name? Jakob Gershowitz
• You may have heard of his famous brother, Ira (Morris and Rosa must have been proud!)
• George quit school at age 15 and took a job as a pianist for a publisher on Tin Pan Alley
• His first hit was “Swanee” (1918)
• In 1936 George was commissioned by RKO Pictures to write the score for the movie, Shall We Dance? with Fred Astaire (ahhh, even swoony-er) and Ginger Rogers
• George died at the young age of 38, following a brain operation
• Some of George (and Ira’s) most loved hits, songs, and musicals are Porgy and Bess, Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris, Funny Face, Someone to Watch Over Me, Our Love is Here to Stay, Lady Be Good, and Nice Work If You Can Get It.

And you are welcome for getting some fabulous melodies stuck in your noggin!

My musician?

Steve Martin

• Steve was born in 1945 in Waco, TX
• As a teenager he performed magic tricks and sold guide books at Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm (I bet he was one entertaining adolescent, don’t you?)
• He was a writer for the Sonny and Cher Show (’72-’73) but found instant stardom when he guest hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live in ’77.
• Steve became a famous actor, writer, and comedian, but how many know of his musical talents? (Other than playing the demented dentist in Little Shop of Horrors, I mean).
• Steve first picked up the banjo when he was around 17 years of age. He has claimed in several interviews and in his autobiography, “Born Standing Up”, that he used to take 33rpm bluegrass records and slow them down to 16 rpm, all while tuning his banjo down, so the notes would sound the same. Steve was able to pick out each note, and perfect his playing.
• The banjo was a staple in Steve’s stand-up shows and even on his comedy albums. In fact, turn over his last comedy album, The Steve Martin Brothers, (1981) and you’ll hear Steve playing banjo with a bluegrass band.
• In 2001, he really got groovin’, and won Best Country Instrumental Performance at the Grammy Awards in 2002.
• He then won another Grammy in 2010 for Best Bluegrass Album.
• Steve has performed with The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, the Steep Canyon Rangers, Edie Brickell, and Dolly Parton, and has been on the Grand Ol’ Opry and A Prairie Home Companion, not to mention on lots of television appearances and on tour.
• In 2010, Steve created the Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass, an award established to reward artistry and bring greater visibility to bluegrass performers. The prize includes a $50,000 cash award, a bronze sculpture, and a chance to perform with Martin on the Late Show With David Letterman.

What a couple of amazing guys, huh? Makes me want to brush off the ol’ musical instrument and get to making some sweeeeet music … or is that the Expert Level Badge? I hear it calling me: it sounds like a banjo playing Lady Be Good.

I’ve always wanted a theme song.

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 5,843 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—8,286 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ

For this week’s Make it Easy/Music Intermediate Level Merit Badge, I had the nifty task of researching one composer and one musician from the last one hundred years. I’ve always liked research (at least when the subject matter is interesting and exciting) and it makes me feel like a scholarly detective.

Gumshoe.

An intrepid investigator of the studious type.

That’s me!

Call me old-fashioned, but I still like cracking open the ol’ books to do my detective-ing. I know, I know: Jane, you say, the whole world is at your fingertips and your laptop! Google knows everything about everyone and you never have to leave your house or change out of your pajamas.

Normally the thought of staying in my PJs most of the day is intriguing, but with Spring upon us, I love myself a good walk to the library. So off I went, spy glass and Deerstalker hat in hand (I mean, head). No, not for stalking deer, sillies – it’s what Sherlock Holmes wears, don’tcha know?

I already had my musician in mind, but narrowing down my composers was like picking my favorite child (or my favorite ice cream). Nearly impossible and dependent upon on my mood at the moment. But detectives are nothing if not ruthless and able to keep their emotions in check, so I straightened my hat and chose … drum roll, puhleeze …

George Gershwin

Want to learn what I found out about this amazing composer? Wondering who I chose to be my musician? Read on, little chickadees, read on … tomorrow.