The Shilleighly/Shelaylee/Shileily/Headache/Hard To Spell Wooden Hammer Thing

Those of you who were (or are!) fellow members of Boy Scout Troop 439, Kensington, MD, U.S.A., will well remember this device. Some others may remember it as well – as far as our troop is concerned, it is a wooden hammer, made from a section of log. One end of the log is left intact (sometimes the bark is removed) to serve as the head, and the other end is narrowed with saw, axe, and knife to serve as a handle. Making a ... err, one of these is a requirement for Totin' Chip in Troop 439, since it requires all three of Totin' Chip tools to make. Additionally, it is perhaps the best tool available to Scouts for driving their tent stakes. Unfortunately, no-one knows how to spell it.

Fortunately, this situation can finally be repaired, at least for the next ten minutes. Examination of my dictionary shows that shillelagh is the proper spelling, named for an Irish village. (Internet research further shows that many places have a different definition of shillelagh, but we don't care about that.) Thus, shillelagh.

A Variation on Clarke's Third Law

You are likely familiar with the classic adage about technology and magic? Here's a similar law which just occurred to me:

Any sufficiently pronounced stupidity is indistinguishable from malice.

(This is, of course, inspired by the famous unattributable proverb advising one not to blame on malice what can be explained by stupidity.)