The alternative is too terrible to contemplate.

are they made from real girl scouts?

If it wasn't for girl scout cookies there'd be Soviet tanks marching right through Times Square!

I once used girl scout cookies to build a dam which saved a small South American village from being flooded!

I was a girl scout.

...

...

...

Okay, fine, I'll admit it. I'm still a girl scout. They give you this offer, when you turn eighteen, to sign up for a lifetime membership thingy and I'm a just a sucker like that.

But none of ya are gonna get your hands on my cookies! (I saw you thinking it Cobie. You too Tamper. And Kent. Maybe EDE too. Who knows when he'll have more dams to fill...?)

Why Cali dear do you think I would want your cookies?

Bah Silly Americans, Lord Baden Powell said explicitly that female members of the scouting movement are Girl Guides. I should know I was a boy scout.

So for the record Girl Guide Cookies.

nope.

Girl Scouts are a completely separate entity from Boy Scouts. nice try.

Lord Baden Powell may have founded Boy Scouting, but Mohammed or Moses he ain't.

No wonder I never got my badge for parting the Red Sea...

Nope, sorry Shakespere. The Girl Scouts of America seem to be a founding member of the World Association of Girl Guides and Scouts (WAGGGS).

Baden-Powell's role in the founding of this organization is discussed here in this Wikipedia article. The story is that Lord Baden-Powell, Victorian male chauvanist that he was, couldn't bear to call female members of the movement 'scouts'

Look wikipedia even redirects \'girl scout\' to the correct name

Girl Scouts of America entry at WAGGGS

I ran into some really aggressive girl scout moms this afternoon at Safeway. They practically accused me of being un-American for not wanting to buy any of their kids' cookies. Little did they know ....

Less chatting, more buying.

i like teh thin mints but my friends bought me two boxes of samoas (my favs) because i have a penchant for devouring them. i had a box yesterday and a box today now i am out of samoas...

Don't know about Girl Scout cookies, but Girl Guide cookies are a force to be reckoned with. I don't think those things even break down in a hot compost bin. But I still buy them to support the grimy-faced little urchins in their quest for knitting badges.

Although you get Guides and Brownies around here I've never known them to go around selling cookies.

There's a brilliant Johnny Bravo episode that i once memorised parts of to impress my eldest daughter, where Johnnys neighbour is trying to sell him cookies, and it's all based on Dr Seusses "Green Eggs and Ham", which we were reading to her at about that time.

Unfortunately I can't remember more than the odd line now.

I will not buy your peanut swirls,
I will not buy them little girl!

Superb stuff.

Maahma!!

Tamper, my buddy, your arguement seems solely based on Lord Baden-Powell having some proprietary rights to the name "scouts."

Isn't so.

Yes, he may have named 'Girl Guides,' with GG origins in the UK and Inda, but Girl Scouts USA formed independently his his Lordship or any Boy Scouts organization in 1912 - six years before WAGGGS (the name of which, incidentlally, includes Girl Guides AND Girls Scouts).

Also, while Wikipedia tends to be accurate on sciences and many other things, do keep in mind that it's a work that practically anyone can add things to - and as such, some of its credibility can be questioned. As a joke, someone once added a fictitious link to a pal's bio entry, linking him to the JFK assassination.

The GSA are clearly founded on the principles of the worldwide scouting movement. Even if they formed independently, all members of the worldwide federations of boy and girl scouting subscribe to Lord B-P's core philosophy which was very much a product of his times.

The story the Wiki article glosses over is that his Lordship came to America on an inspection of the scouting movement some time betwen 1912 and 1918 and saw Girl Scout troups. To that point, he had not considered training girls in the same way as boys. He liked idea but his Victorian chauvanism caused him not to vet the name Girl Scout when he asked his sister to organize in Britain.

As to whether 'Boy Scouts' and 'Girl Scouts' are proprietary names, I invite you to try to form troups, call yourself "US Scouts Association" advertise and see if the US scouting movement refrains from legal action.

'Boy Scouts' and 'Girl Scouts' are indeed proprietary names - held by completely separate entities, similar but not exactly as the term "Super-hero" is co-owned by Marvel and DC - two separate companies with no jurisdiction over each other.

Just as Marvel/Timely was initially copying National/DC's move by printong comics, that doesn't make Marvel a subsidiary of DC, nor does it mean Marvel automatically follows everything DC does or says.

So while Lord Baden-Powell may have been the defining pioneer, simply because HE chose the term 'girl guides' does not automatically make it law of the land. If so, WAGGGS would have omited the GS and just be WAGG.

'Scout' all by itself is NOT proprietary - there have been autos named 'Scout' in recent times. If one tried to start a youth org called, say, "Legion Scouts," with similar scouting activity, yes, one would get sued - the argument of causing 'confusion in the marketplace' between existing and new 'brands' traking precedence. But that was not the case in 1912 - Baden-Powell's outfit consisted of "Boy Scouts" and "Girl Guides;" as you point out, his Lordship frowned on "girls scouts." BUT the precedent either did not exist, or was not challenged, and GSA stands as it always have been - separate and independent.

YES, they may share some principles, just as the Amish (or any protestant or even Orhodox Church) may share with Catholics, but that doesn't place them under Rome's authority, or all of its rules.

BTW, Tamper, it's been a fun debate! thanks!

I have long assumed that a large number of the members of this board can quote chapter and verse of Lord Baden-Powells most famous work "Scouting For Boys".

I much prefer "Scouting for Girls".

Chapter 5 - Choosing your Stomping Grounds
The restaurant/cafe at upscale department stores staffed with personal shoppers is an example of the prime habitat for the subtypes's we're looking for.

Be sure to camoflauge yourself amongst the crowd of diletente children of the idle rich, by dressing as they dress and arriving in a chauffered car service auto.

Spiffany's sells Girl Scout cookies??

Dilettentes are what debutantes take on camping trips!

Which is why I must dress disguise myself as a dilettente to snare a debutante.

?

I tossed my cookies! I mean that is to say I shared them in class today. I boughtta box of samoas and a box of thin mints. Are any of the other ones good? I'm afraid to deviate from what I know.

My nine year old daughter is in girl scouts. She and I and another girl and her mom set up to sell cookies outside of Safeway last Saturday. In two hours, we sold 7 cases of cookies. It wasn't hard. I should say...the girls did it. The other mom and I just helped make change.

When someone would decline, the girls would respond with a polite "Thanks anyway!"

I have heard some pretty intense stories of major competition between girls who do this. I guess we're lucky that we're not in a troop like that.

I bought eight boxes of Shortbread (not Trefoils -- those are greasier) from our photo editor's daughter. His daughter is the only one I can find around here who uses that bakery instead of the Trefoil one. I did buy a box of Thin Mints from my boss' daughter for my hubby, though, just to be safe.

Shortbread is really the only one I like, and I always feel bad not buying them from the Scouts at the stores, but they all sell Trefoils here.

Tamper's got me wondering... would Lord BP approve of the Bear Scouts?

I've finished my thin mints and samoas and I dunno where the girl scouts are anymore! I think they got washed away in all this San Francisco rain and snow...

They're back....

I better find my local supplier.

I will continue to resist.

polarboy SMASH COOKIES!

Girls + cookies = Cobie like!

Er, those girls being those late teen/early 20 year old girl scouts that must not be as prevalant in all your guys necks of the woods and stuff...

I bought 2 boxes today!

Has Superman ever gone up against a girlscout...and won?

Didn't think so.

Selling Cookies indeed. Whatever happened to Bob a Job, that’s what I want to know.

Country's never been the same since decimalisation.

Grump, grumble, mutter

Ahem,

I will translate for my american cousins.

"Bob a Job:" an ol'English tradition of slave labor yardwork after which a cubbie gains an uncle, hence the saying, "bob's your uncle." Banned by the Magna Carta but still known to have pockets of practice in the Scottish borders.

"decimalisation:" what happens to the cubbie if the yard work is not adequately performed. For further reference, see "quartering."

Glad to be of assistance.

I bought tagalongs today from some girl scouts right outside the supermarket.

That depends. What if the cookies are coming from Shelley Long?

Shelley who?

Just kidding. She really did wreck her career with Troop Beverly Hills, though. Never seen it, but never heard anything positive about it, either.

Actually I think it's pretty hilarious.

Hey, I'm always in favor of a contrary opinion on an unpopular movie. To give but one example, I genuinely think Event Horizon is underrated.

Back on topic: I ate some of the tagalongs. They were good.

I wonder why the Girl Scouts here don't sell cookies. The ones I met do help in directing traffic though...

I once ate an entire box of samoas on my own...in an hour.

As mentioned in the Peanut Butter thread ... I ate a box of Peanut Butter girl scout cookies.

What was not mentioned was ... I also ate a box of Samoas ... a box of the mint ones ... and a box of the short bread ones.

Mr Peebz buys and saves them for me when I come home.

I just stocked up on mashed potatoes AND Girl Scout Cookies!

Go on, be envious. Line forms to the left.