Person-of-Mystery

Welcome to Cipher Saturday!  You've found the home of everyone's favorite weekend pastime, where a stylized image of a somewhat famous person from history is provided here for you to identify.

Today, Person-of-Mystery returns with a vengeance!  I'm now back to teaching after a lovely summer and while preparing for my classes, I have plenty of new semi-obscure personages to use over the upcoming weeks!

Additional clues may be found in the cipher below:

UMBLSA D HMA ULV M EDBT MOI MO TDNXEX

FMCKHLLIA HMA BZ XLBT

FSE D VSFFTI AXLSGITVA HDEX NVTMEA

KOLHO ULV BZ MCEDLOA DO GMOIA OTMV MUMV

ME EXT OMBT LU EXT VDPTV VLZMG

D FVLSNXE ILHO AXLLEDON AEMV

MGEXLSNX BZ VTOLHO YTLYGT IDI XMDG

EDVTGTAAGZ ATVPDON EXT OMEDLO AL HTGG

D ELDGTI SOXDOITVTI ULV ATPTO IMZA BMDG

CLOADITVTI FZ ALBT LOCT MOI MNMDO

FSE ATTDON DOAETMI BZ HDUT’A SODQST UTMESVT

GTMAE MBLON EXLAT HMA XTV YVLBDOTOE CXDO

ME UDVAE LOT UMDEXGTAA BMO MGBLAE GTUE BT FT

D HMA AMPTI DOAETMI FZ EXT VSGDON LU EHTGPT

MOI HXTO DE XMYYTOTI MNMDO OL LOT HMA FTEETV EXMO BT

So, who could I be?  That's the mystery!  Go ahead and take a guess and then go enjoy your day.  Check back tomorrow and I'll reveal the answer.  The first correct post will be declared the winner.

If you'd like to make sure that your guess is correct, enter his name into Google Images and this photo will be found on the first pages of the image results.

Dick Maas in a Sailor Suit

Today, I'm featuring a very early and prescient photo of my grandfather, Dick Maas, in a sailor suit.  He would later become a career officer in the United States Navy.

A later-in-life photo may be viewed HERE.

Oliver Winchester

Yesterday's Person-of-Mystery was none other than Oliver Winchester, famous for his repeating rifle.

I chose him in honor of our Boy Scout outing this weekend, our annual Shoot-a-Rama!  That's where we camp out on the local shooting range and spend all day doing archery, shotgun, rifle, and black powder.  Too much fun!  The boys shot from 8:30 am to 9:30 pm with a short break for lunch.

Here are some pictures...

Person-of-Mystery

Welcome to the Person-of-Mystery Contest!  You've found the home of everyone's favorite weekend pastime, where a stylized photo of a somewhat famous person from history is provided here for you to identify.

I must say, this summer I've had a blast with the Person-of-Mystery contest and I've also had a good deal of fun with the Boy Scouts.  I'm out camping with them again today, just trying to repeat the fun one last time before school starts.

So, who could I be?  That's the mystery!  Go ahead and take a guess and then go enjoy your day.  Check back tomorrow and I'll reveal the answer.  The first correct post will be declared the winner.

If you'd like to make sure that your guess is correct, enter his name into Google Images and this photo will be found on the first pages of the image results.

Sneaky Junk Mail

Now that I'm home, I'm going through the mail I missed.  As I was doing so, I ran across a piece of junk mail that I set aside last month that I wanted to share with you.

The junk mail that almost got through

Mail used to be one of the things I looked forward to.  As I would spy the mailman in the neighborhood, I would wonder who might have written.  Today, it's not so thrilling.  Almost all the stamps are generic and with the stick-em backs, you can't even save them if you collect.  Since e-mail almost no one sends a personal letter and the box is filled with mostly bulk mail junk.  The worst I think are the supermarket circulars.  They're not even addressed to me, but the mailman just jams them into the box.  A few years ago, they stopped delivering mail to the individual houses in the neighborhood and the post office gives you a little lock box and the end of the street, so if you don't empty the junk mail every couple of days, the real letter that happens to come still gets crumpled in a pile of advertisements.

Junk mail has become a horrible game of cat and mouse with the junk mailers trying to get you to open their letters before just tossing them.  I don't really know why they do this.  I'm not more likely to buy something from junk mail if I happen to be tricked into opening it.

So this is my story about how I was almost recently tricked into opening junk mail.  I was going through the pile of worthless advertisements, when the corner of a letter caught my eye.

Suspicious return address

At first it looked like one of those cutesy family return address stamps, "From all of us – Brandon, Anne, Cole, Jake."  But wait!  It had a odd printing error running through the middle.  Why?

Wait a minute!  There's a bulk mail stamp, a generic "mailed from zip code" cancelation stamp, and a presorted bar code.  It's junk mail!  Nice one, sneaky junk mailer.  You almost got me.

Just for kicks, I looked at Google Maps to see where the Brandon, Anne, Cole and Jake family lived in Plano...

Yep, wasn't the sweet little single family home I had originally envisioned.

It's too bad.  I would almost go back to using postal mail for nostalgia sake if it weren't for things like this (oh, and the half dollar price tag to mail a letter).

Summer Camp Retrospective

Well everyone, I'm home!  If you're a regular reader, you will know I was at Boy Scout Camp Emerald Bay on Catalina Island last week.  But I've been resting up and I'm ready to start blogging again.  To get back in the groove, I figured I'd give you a peek into our Troop's summer camp experience.

Our Troop Contingent – I'm at the front right

Although we have about 50 boys in the Troop, summer camp for us is kind of like an intro to the outdoors as we are an outdoorsy unit.  So although Boy Scouts is for guys ages 11 to 18, our group going to summer camp tends to be smaller and on the younger end.  I must say, it was probably the best summer I've had since I became Scoutmaster about five years ago.  The new group of boys are all great guys and their always positive attitudes and can-do spirit was really a pleasure.  I don't think I heard one unkind word all week.  It was kind of like being with a dream Troop.

We left from San Pedro, California, and took in all the sights of the harbor.

One pleasant surprise, which wasn't there the last time we went to this camp, was to see the World War II battleship, the USS Iowa, docked in the harbor as a museum ship.

The camp contracts with a ferry company to take Scouts directly to camp.  This year, we were on the larger of the two ferries which meant that we had to take a water taxi to the dock as the ship stayed off shore.

Camp Emerald Bay is probably one of the most deluxe Scouting camps I've ever attended.  It sits on a little cove towards the northeast end of the island.

This year, we had the added benefit of being joined by my nephew Otto from New Mexico.

My son Andrew, Otto, and myself

The camp conducts all the normal Boy Scout camp type activities – classes, campfires, etc...

Headed to classes

Kayaking class practicing water recovery and rescue

Drew at Shotgun class

Tom on a sunrise swim to Indian Rock

Indian Rock from another angle.

Can you see him lying on his back looking up at the sky?

Apart from the normal camp stuff, Emerald Bay offers a unique waterfront experience with some of the best snorkeling in our state.  This year, I brought an underwater point-and-shoot camera to take some shots of the marine life.

Kelp Forest

Waters Teaming with Life

Tom with a good abalone specimen

Swimming through the kelp forests is one of the most peaceful experiences I've ever had.  It was fun seeing the harbor seals, fish, rays, lobster, abalone, eels, octopi, sharks, etc.

Garibaldi, California's State Fish

Exploring Smuggler's Cave near Parson's Landing

A couple of highlights from the week were rowing around the point from camp at sunrise with the boys to camp at Parson's Landing.  A good sized pod of dolphin came swimming by our canoe.

Canoes arriving at Parson's Landing

It was fun cooking on the beach and sleeping under the stars while listening to the crashing waves.

The bison who slowed our progress to Two Harbors

Bison are rather large animals

The final morning of camp, we decided to take an early morning seven mile mountain bike ride to the town of Two Harbors.  Our path was soon blocked by a bison who didn't want to move.  I figure we chased that beast about six miles trying to get him to clear off the road.  We eventually got to the town and had a quick breakfast before heading back to catch the boat home.

I'll have to come back.  On the way back, I spied a little cove that looked rather inviting.  So goodbye, Catalina.  Hope to visit again soon!

Will Return Soon

Many people aren't aware that Southern California has several islands off the coast, collectively called the Channel Islands.  The largest of these is Catalina Island and this is where I'll be this week for Boy Scout Camp!

Nate's Nonsense will resume publication after I return on August 11th.

Congratulations to Lynn, who correctly identified William Wrigley, Jr. as the Person-of-Mystery!  Wrigley, best known for his chewing gum empire and for his association with the Chicago Cubs, was chosen as he was instrumental in the development and preservation of the island.

So, you can think of me, while we're roughing it at Camp Emerald Bay!  I'm sure they'll be some good stories when we return.