Regarding Scouting, David has a couple of options on top of your advice: lie like a dog, find a different troop, or walk away. The first option has the disadvantage of violating the first tenet of the Scout Law (Trustworthy). The second one potentially inconvenient depending on where he\'s living. And it doesn\'t sound like he wants to do the last one if he doesn\'t have to.

I\'m guessing that he moved and his new troop is sponsored by a conservative leaning Catholic church, and up to Eagle rank the individual troop has enormous latitude in how a Board of Review to advance in rank is conducted. Unfortunately, as the failure of the gay rights lawsuit against the BSA proved a few years ago, there is no legal prohibition against asking such a question since the BSA is a private organization. The Catholics, Baptists, and Mormons have managed to get a stranglehold on national BSA policy in recent years, owing to the fact that their churches tend to sponsor the most troops (it\'s a premade church youth group).

I am an Eagle Scout. It\'s an accomplishment I\'m proud of. Yet I will no longer participate in the organization. I had an older friend in Scouts who was extremely active, well liked on the Council level, and had held numerous leadership positions. He was on track to become a professional Scouter. Shortly before I completed my Eagle requirements, he came out as gay. He was honorable about it: he basically told everyone that this was who he was, but he respected the BSA position on the issue, so he was quitting. Overnight, he was persona non grata. Council officials that were his friend would no longer talk to him. Neither would many of the Scoutmasters that he had worked with as a summer camp staffer. It was disgusting.

I stuck it out long enough to finish my Eagle, and briefly entertained the idea of trying to change things from the inside. It\'s sad that an otherwise worthwhile organization chooses to drive away dedicated people like David and me.

Thank you Dave! I was going to say the same thing. In in Syracuse and Ithaca is quite a way south of me and there is still a lot of New York before you start hearing French Canadian.

But I still love your show Geo, and I would love to have you come up to Syracuse to play someday.

George:

Bulgarian wedding music also has a bunch of those cool polyrhythms. There\\\'s one in particular called \\\"Sedi Donka\\\" which is in 25/16.

The grouping is 3 2 2 3 2 2 2 2 3 2 2 or
Long short short Long short short short short Long short short

Go to this site http://www.woodsongs.com/showlist.asp and check out show 287 with Mike Marshall and Chris Thile. The 2nd to last song is Sedi Donka. The rest of the show if pretty amazing as well. Especially if you\\\'re a mandolin player like me.

AND, my favorite guitarist, Alan Holdsworth, does a solo in the song \\\"Devil take the Hindmost\\\" where he changes from 32 notes to quintuplets (which would be 20 over 16).

Yes, quintuplets are cool. Especially when your drummer can do them with a one handed 5 stroke roll.

Cool show buddy. It makes me want to get out of work, go home, and play some music (2 more hours, just 2 more hours).

How long did it take you to learn tempos/timing? I started learning music in September. I am learning to play the cello and had never studied music before. I am having a very hard time getting timing down.

Wish I\\\'d been there with my green laser pointer when you were looking at the stars. Would\\\'ve been super!
Oh well. There\\\'s always next time!
Cool story as always, though.

Good luck with the Parsecs. 365 Days of Astronomy is toast being in the category you\\\'re in. Toast, I tell you! ;^)

We need to have Geo\\\'s Sartorial Minute as a permanent bit from now on.