COUSIN JOHNNY

[Capt. Sterling]

COUSIN JOHHHNNNYYYY IM RIGHT HERE. I HEARD YOU WANTED TO GO FISHING WE CAN GO ANY TIME ITS NICE OUT TODAY. HEY MISS CHEEKY IS LOOKING FOR A VENETIAN DUCHE (DID I SPELL THAT RIGHT IM NOT A GOOD SPELLER) ANYHOW WE COULD TAKE HER WITH US YOU MIGHT CATCH SOMETHING LAST TIME YOU DID NOT CATCH ANYTHING

Chum.... now there's a thought... well done Robbie!

[COUSIN ROBBIE]

COUSIN JOHNNY! YOU WOULDN'T BELIEVE THE WEEKEND I HAD! I WENT TO FORT FREDRICK FOR MARKET FAIR AND SAW ALL SORTS OF NEAT THINGS THEY HAD A SURGEON TOO AND HE SUGGESTED THAT I GET A LOBOTOMY IM NOT SURE WHAT THAT IS BUT THIS IS THE THIRD TIME SOMEONE TRIED TO GIVE ME ONE NEXT TIME I THINK ILL GET ONE FOR YOU. HEY YOU WILL NEVER GUESS WHO I SAW THERE!!! HAMMISH WAS THERE!! HE'S MY FRIEND HE HAS TEETH NOW HE GAVE ME A BIG HUG I THINK HE MISSED ME. MISTER GUNNER WAS THERE TOO HE FOUND A WOODEN MUSKET FOR ME AND A WOODEN BATTLE RATTLE. HE SAID IT WAS MY JOB TO SOUND THE ALARM ANY TIME I DECIDED TO WALK AWAY THAT WAY THEY COULD FIND ME IF THEY NEEDED ME I SOUNDED THE ALARM AND I NEVERSAW HIM HE MUST NOT HAVE NEEDED ME BUT THATS OK. OHHHH THEY HAD SHOWS THERE TOO SINIORA BELLA WAS THERE AND SHE JUGGLED AND WALKED ON A BALL AND A ROPE I WALKED ON A ROPE BUT IT WAS ON THE GROUND HERS WAS IN THE AIR SHE HAD PRETTY COSTUMES AND WORE MAKEUP BUT NOT LIKE MISS CHEEKY WHEN SHE DRESSES UP AS A CARTI-- COUSETA---- COWSPE--- OH HECK, A CLOWN!

THEN THERE WERE THESE FOLKS THAT HAD A CIRCUS, FIARE WYNDES I THINK IS HOW THEY SPELLED IT, THEY WERE FUNNY HE DID MAGIC BUT DUTCHES MAGIC TRICKS ARE MUCH BETTER AND HE HAD A FLEA CIRCUS IT WAS FUN UNITL I LET THE FLEAS OUT BY ACCIDENT. OK IM WALKING TO YOUR PLACE COUSIN JOHNNY SEE YOU SOON.

[Capt. Sterling]

Trust me Robbie, ye don't be needing any lobotomies... I think yer damned clever just the way ye are...

[callenish gunner]

ROBBIE, Hamish enjoyed his time with you especially when you were rolling on the bed with him. I think he wants to see you again soon Your honesty is a good influence on him, you say what you mean and mean what you say. Anytime you want to babysit or visit you're more than welcome!!!

[sutlerjon]

CALLENISH are you sure that's what you want?

To leave yer wee one with ROBBIE?!?

Be careful he may try to teach him to breathe underwater and chase clams!

For goodness sake make sure Lady Grace is somewhere within earshot!

When you go to pick him up he'll probably say ......

I KNOW YOUUUUUUU YOU"RE MY DADDDDDDDDDYYYYYY WATCH THIS ROBBIES TRYIN TO TEACH ME TO BREATHE IN THE TUB WITHOUT A SNORKEL AND TO SWIM WITHOUT ME FLIPPERS OR MASK ......

Be careful man! The wee ones are precious!

[Dutchman]

well he did it again. I just got off the conch shell with duncan and it seems that cousin robbie and his new friend sabastian managed to break every diving board rule and fifteen new ones they added as a result of the weekends activities at pohick park. apparently the poor lifeguard didn't know weather to weewee or wind her watch.

[Capt. Sterling]

sigh... only cousin Robbie... I think the boy needs a leash...

[Fionntan Murtaugh]

They were quite a sight. Very entertaining. I was laughing so hard that I nearly fell in ...again.

Edited June 17, 2009 by Fionntan Murtaugh

[Duncan McGuyver]

The Parks Authority is supposed to be sending me a cd with all of the pics they took. I am hoping there is one of Robbie hanging upside down by his feet from the diving board.

[Jack Roberts]

Oh that would be awesome!! Can't wait to see.

[Capt. Sterling]

The Parks Authority is supposed to be sending me a cd with all of the pics they took. I am hoping there is one of Robbie hanging upside down by his feet from the diving board.

Oi McGuyver, ye best share them pictures better than ye shared that treasure!

[Fionntan Murtaugh]

My favorite part of the event was when we were waiting for the truck and a young lady, about 6 or 8, came up to me and said "excuse me, I just wanted to thank you for making this the best Saturday of my life." I really wish I had a coin for her and her brother! I need to invest in some gold coin for the kids.

[Capt. Sterling]

My favorite part of the event was when we were waiting for the truck and a young lady, about 6 or 8, came up to me and said "excuse me, I just wanted to thank you for making this the best Saturday of my life." I really wish I had a coin for her and her brother! I need to invest in some gold coin for the kids.

Really does make it all worth it, doesn't it Finn? You would have had a blast at the burn camp as well, those kids were really into it.

[Duncan McGuyver]

Oh that would be awesome!! Can't wait to see.

I will post the pics I have later today, and update with the ones from the park when I get them. I love this shot you took of Beast going off:

The Parks Authority is supposed to be sending me a cd with all of the pics they took. I am hoping there is one of Robbie hanging upside down by his feet from the diving board.

Oi McGuyver, ye best share them pictures better than ye shared that treasure!

I will, and remind me to check the depth of the pool the next time I throw us in !!! My left knee still hurts !

My favorite part of the event was when we were waiting for the truck and a young lady, about 6 or 8, came up to me and said "excuse me, I just wanted to thank you for making this the best Saturday of my life." I really wish I had a coin for her and her brother! I need to invest in some gold coin for the kids.

Thats great to hear - the parks authority really enjoys the event and definitely want us back again next year.

[Capt. Sterling]

Thats great to hear - the parks authority really enjoys the event and definitely want us back again next year.

Woo Hoo!!! now to find the deep end of the pool...

[Duncan McGuyver]

Pictures are up, including the ones you sent me Jack

Pohick bay Pirate Day 2009

We didn't get any of the camp - I am hoping some will be on the CD from the Parks people.

Duncan

[COUSIN ROBBIE]

HEY COUSINNNN JOHHHNNNNYYYYYY!!!!!! CAN WE PLAY CORNHOLE? IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE BECOMING A SUMMER BACKYARD FAVORITE. YOU PITCH YOUR CORN AND IT GOES INTO A HOLE I FOUND A WHOLE BROADSHEET ON IT IT SAYS ITS PROVIDES OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALL AGES AND REQUIRES LITTLE ASSEMBLY, FOR CONVENIENCE SAKE. IT MEASURES UP AS AN ACCEPTABLE FAMILY GAME FOR TWO PEOPLE OR YOU CAN PLAY WITH YOURSELF YOU EARN THREE POINTS FOR MAKING IT INTO THE HOLE THE FIRST ONE TO 21 WINS AND THE COURSE CAN BE SHORTENED FOR YOUNGER PLAYERS THEY EVEN SAY IT CAN BE A TOURIST ATTRACTION AS PEOPLE LIKE TO WATCH CORNHOLING BOY IMAGINE HAVING A LOT OF CORNHOLING GOING ON AT THE SAME TIME THAT WOULD BE A SITE. THIS SMART FELLA THAT THE PAPER TALKED TO SAID "YOU'VE GOT A LOT OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE NEVER SEEN IT BEFORE, AND YOU GET A LOT OF PEOPLE WHO DO IT ALL THE TIME. YOU CAN TELL THEY DO IT QUITE A BIT". THEY EVEN HAVE SPECIAL DAYS OF CORNHOLING. IMAGINE SUCH A THING!!!!!! A WHOLE DAY OF CORNHOLING I'VE NEVER PLAYED BEFORE BUT I BET ID BE WORN OUT

[Capt. Sterling]

Um ... Robbie...sit down... may I please have a look at that broadsheet... I think we need to talk...

[COUSIN ROBBIE]

WHY COUSIN JOHNNY HERE IS THE ENTIRE BRADSHEET!!! THEY EVEN HAVE PICTURES OF A MAN HOLDING HIS CORNHOLE AND THERE IS EVEN A CORNHOLE ASSOCIATION, LOOK IT UP YOURSELF!!!!!!! WWW.PLAYCORNHOLE.COM!!!!! SEE I TOLD YOU YOU COULD PLAY WITH YOUR CORNHOLE

http://www.nvdaily.com/lifestyle/2009/07/cornhole-is-becoming-a-summer.html

<H1 class=leadhed>Cornhole is becoming a summer backyard favorite</H1>

Tim Day, left, and his brother-in-law Phil Chaloux play a round of cornhole on the Days' Bridgemount Farm in Mt. Jackson. Rich Cooley/Daily

Day sights in his target for a cornhole game. Rich Cooley/Daily

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By Preston Knight -- pknight@nvdaily.com

MT. JACKSON -- The measuring sticks for whether an outdoor family game has staying power encompass a select few.

First and foremost, the game needs to provide opportunities for achievement for people of all ages, leveling the playing field. Next, it should require little assembly, for convenience sake. And, finally, a competition demanding only a few participants always proves beneficial.

As popular games such as horseshoes, bocce ball and Wiffle ball have become mainstays in people's backyards, one "new" game is making a late charge to become king: cornhole, also known as bags, tailgate toss, corn toss and an array of other names.

The game is new only in its growing prominence at barbecues, football tailgates and other events. According to the American Cornhole Association, the game may have originated in Germany in the 1500s and was rediscovered in the hills of Kentucky more than 100 years ago.

The fact that the association exists is testimony to the popularity of the game. Add in a YouTube song, "The Cornhole song," that has more than 430,000 views, and you can begin to surmise that the pastime has some momentum in becoming commonplace.

And cornhole measures up as an acceptable family backyard game -- teams of two, or single players, toss small, one-pound bags of corn like a softball about 30 feet toward a sloped wooden platform on the ground, earning three points for making it into a hole cut in the board or one point for getting the bag to rest on the board. The first team to 21 wins. The distance, of course, can be shortened for younger players.

"It doesn't take up a whole lot of space," said Tim Day, the manager of Maize Quest, which began offering the game last fall to people visiting the maze. "I just put [the boards] in the truck."

As a tourist attraction, Maize Quest welcomes visitors from many places. And as an expert in building corn mazes, Day, who is helping construct 30 mazes this year, travels to numerous states. Cornhole, he said, is familiar to as many people as it is foreign to others.

"A lot of people want to know if we came up with the game," he said.

Day, in fact, only heard of it last year, when a friend introduced him to it. In his highly competitive family -- with some friends, they have rented a minor league stadium and played baseball there for the last eight or nine years -- the game was an instant hit. Maize Quest then began offering it as a supplement to the maze itself, with enough boards to have four games going at once.

"You get a lot of people who've never seen it before," Day said, "and you get a lot of people who do it all the time. You can tell they do it quite a bit."

Students at Christendom College, according to its Web site, play cornhole tournaments and have special "days" of competition for the game. It can also almost be counted on as a guaranteed sight at a football tailgate.

Stores, in turn, are catching on. A Virginia Tech-painted set, for example, was found for $99 at Bed, Bath & Beyond recently.

But it's much cheaper to build one on your own, Day said.

For $50, which pays for a sheet of plywood, two 2-by-4s and the bags, you should be able to make two cornhole game sets.

Day found bags made of duck cloth -- and filled with the requisite corn -- for $1 online. Eight bags are needed for a game -- a team member tosses four each turn -- but you could get by with fewer if one broke.

The cornhole association's sales pitch as to why cornhole is the premiere backyard game is detailed: "Horseshoes require a sand pit and are hard for the kids to pitch, lawn darts require a lawn and hasn't been seen since the 70s, ring toss was made for children and bean bags are for wimps; Cornhole is the game for everyone!" according to its Web site.

Day does not go that far in endorsing the game, but he's almost always primed for a competitive match, and looks forward to offering it, and possibly weekly tournaments, at Maize Quest again beginning in mid-September.

"We've worn out the bags," he said.

[Capt. Sterling]

Sterling....**huge sigh of relief**

[COUSIN ROBBIE]

**

Edited October 29, 2009 by COUSIN ROBBIE

[Capt. Sterling]

**WHACK!!!**

[Capt. Sterling]

Oi Cuz... thought ye might find these a bit up yer alley...

24 January 1719

Bedlam, Jan. 18.

IT is not long since one of the female inhabitants of these frantick territories, gave the following occasion for a very pleasing entertainment. Some bricklayers happen’d to be a work here, to repair and clear the passage leading to Common-Shore; who going to dinner, and leaving the ladder which descended to the Common-Shore, standing, the said inhabitant had a sort of an odd notion, that the workmen had been prying into the Secrets of the Lower World, and therefore (no body seeing her) she went down the ladder, which led into the Common-Shore, and in that subterraneous cavern, finding none to controul or stop her passage, she travell’d with great pleasure and curiosity, till she came to Tokenhouse Yard, which is near half a mile: There it happen’d, that a couple of young female coming to the vault [i.e. outside toilet], head a voice below, crying, Who the plague are ye? What d’ye make that noise for? What, is the Devil in ye? Upon which, away flew the women, not staying to look behind ’em. And coming half frighten’d into the house, said the Devil was in the vault. Accordingly more company going, they still heard the same noise: Upon which, they call’d out, and ask’d, Who’s there? What are ye? The Devil, replied the traveller below. How came you there? said they. Nay, How the Devil know I, answer’d the madwoman; why don’t ye bring me a candle, that I may find my way. Finding it certainly to be a humane voice, they fear’d somebody might accidentqally have fallen in, and therefore they immediately went to work to deliver the poor wretch from her stinking thraldom, and found of her a lamentable spectacle: So that they began to question how she came there, and where she liv’d. She answer’d, That she was going to Hell, but had lost her way; that there were several in her company who had got thither, and the gate was shut upon them, but she had lost her way; but she said, She would overtake them by and by. These wild expressions made some of them fancy she was a mad woman, and after some consideration, they resolv’d to bring her hither, where she was presently own’d, and the people that brought her let us into the story; but her head still runs on her Journey, and she talks of little else. (Weekly Journal, or, British Gazetteer)

ADVERTISEMENT

16 October 1725

Concerning Lunatick or Melancholy Persons.

Any person that has friend or relation (of the female sex) afflicted with l may have them treated with the greatest care and lenity, where there is a large garden, good air, and a very pleasant situation, not far from London. They are attended by nurses or servants of their own sex; no man-servant being allow’d of. There is likewise good accommodation, at an easy rate, for women-lunaticks, or melancholy persons, who are deem’d or thought incurable. Enquire at the Golden Key near the Penny Post Office in St. Christopher’s Church-Yard, Threadneedle-Street, near the Royal-Exchange, and know farther.

N.B. No men lunaticks are entertain’d at the same House. [Weekly Journal, or The British Gazetteer]

13 January 1726 There is a subscription going on towards the building for incurable lunaticks adjoining to Bethlem-Hospital in Moorfields, at the book for that purpose is left with John Taylor, Esq. Treasurer of the said Hospital, at his house in New-Street in Shoe-Lane, near Fleet-Street. The Preamble whereof is as follows, viz.

Whereas the Hospital of Bethlem, London, was erected by charitable contributions, and intended for the harbouring poor lunaticks whose distraction might probably be cured, and the revenues thereof are appropriated for the providing diet and physick for such patients, and servants proper to attend them during such time as there appears any hopes of recovering them to their former senses: But when after tryal made with the greatest application and diligence, a cure is not found practicable, then such are, by the rules of the Hospital, discharged from thence, to make room for the admision of others whose cure may probably be effected. And whereas these incurable lunaticks, when discharged, are destitute of relief, and no provision has hitherto been made for their support by the publick, notwithstanding they are in themselves the most helpless and deplorable objects of charity, and to their neighbours most expensive and dangerous: Upon these considerations, the Governours of Bethlem Hospital, ever ready to promote acts of charity, made application to the Mayor, commonalty, and citizens of the City of London, for a grant of a piece of ground in Moorfields, part whereof was a common foot way, in order to build apartments for habouring one hundred incurable lunaticks, half men and half women, which grant they have lately obtained; and they have also obtained His Majesty's Royal Licence for inclosing the said foot way, for the purposes aforesaid, and have begun to build thereon out of some benefactions already given for that use; but the said Governours cannot perfect the same, and raise a fund for the maintenance of such incurable lunaticks and necessary attendants, without the assistance of well-disposed persons. Now therefore, we whose names are hereunto subscribed, have voluntarily contracted and paid the several sums of money by us respectively underwritten, for and towards the advancing and carrying on of a charity so great and well designed, hoping that they who enjoy the blessing of a right mind, will lend their assistance to them who are ever like to want it. [Daily Courant]

16 April 1726 By the Report of the Governors of the several hospitals under the care of the Lord Mayor and the citizens of London, it appears, that for the year last past there have been put forth apprentices out of Christ’s Hospital 116 children to several trades and callings, 10 whereof being instructed in the mathematicks, were put forth to the Commanders of ships.

Children now remaining under the care and charge of the said Hospital,

Buried the last year,

There have been cured and discharged from St. Bartholomew’s Hospital the same year, of wounded, maimed, sick, and diseased persons,

Buried the same year,

Remaining there under cure,

Cured and discharged from St. Thomas’s Hospital for the year last past,

Buried from thence this year,

Remaining under cure,

Received this year into the Hospital of Bridewell, vagrants, &c.

Apprentices brought up in diverse arts and trades in the said Hospital,

Admitted into the Hospital of Bethlem, distracted men and women,

Cured there of their lunacy,

Distracted persons bured the last year,

Remaining there under cure, 997

3

3564

245

563

4873

392

652

289

87

93

65

9

148

[Weekly Journal, or The British Gazetteer]

28 June 1729 Some days ago a woman, one of the poor distracted patients in Bedlam, by some means made her escape out of that hospital, being stark naked, and ran about Moor-fields in that condition, to the great terror of the people before she could be secured; which was done at last by throwing her down, and entangling her with cords. (London Journal)

[COUSIN ROBBIE]

**

Edited October 29, 2009 by COUSIN ROBBIE

[Capt. Sterling]

OMG, my head hurts....