The Jack Wide Award
If you have found this page you may have been given a great honor by a layout host: You messed something up, others had some fun at your expense, and now as a Jack Wide Recipient you have joined all that came before you!
Those of us who have already earned the award now welcome you with a knowing smile and open arms. The Jack Wide Award is all in fun... now you are in on the joke too... and we hope you will identify and recruit others. They will make themselves known by running over turnouts set against them, going the wrong way on the wrong track, knocking cuts of cars over, and more!
The OPSIG Jack Wide Award is bestowed upon an operating session guest who has made that catastrophic mistake. If you were that guest, we hope you will wear the button as a badge of honor. Hey, nobody died, and maybe for a few minutes you were the center of a lot of attention! Every single member of OPSIG has made a similar mistake... and likely made quite a number of them.
The inspiration for the JACK WIDE AWARD is from a real-life character, of course named Jack Wide. In the late 1800s, James "Jumper" Wide was known for jumping between railcars.... leading to the possibly inevitable accident when he "missed" and lost both of his legs. To assist in performing his duties, Wide purchased a baboon named "Jack" and trained him to push his wheelchair and to operate railway signals under James' supervision. An official investigation was initiated after a concerned member of the public reported that a baboon was observed changing railway signals at Uitenhage near Port Elizabeth. The result of the investigation was that the railway decided to officially employ Jack Wide since his job competency was proven. The baboon was paid twenty cents a day and a half-bottle of beer each week. It is widely reported that in his nine years of employment with the railroad, Jack Wide the baboon never made a mistake on the railroad... not once. The moral of the story: Jack Wide, a baboon, got it right every time. Our Jack Wide Award honorees... well... didn’t do better than Jack could and did. This baboon was better at it than you were on your fateful day!
Welcome, friend, to the group. Recipients of the award are encouraged to wear the button but to maintain a modicum of secrecy otherwise. After all, it is nobody else's business... until they too stumble and fall, at which time hopefully a host in the know will induct them on the spot. And no, this award does not earn credit toward your possible Ninja Achievement. Obviously.
INQUIRIES ABOUT AWARDING THE JACK WIDE AWARD SHOULD BE MADE BY OPSIG MEMBERS TO: info (x) opsig-ap.org. You may or may not get a response, that is the nature of these things.
Those of us who have already earned the award now welcome you with a knowing smile and open arms. The Jack Wide Award is all in fun... now you are in on the joke too... and we hope you will identify and recruit others. They will make themselves known by running over turnouts set against them, going the wrong way on the wrong track, knocking cuts of cars over, and more!
The OPSIG Jack Wide Award is bestowed upon an operating session guest who has made that catastrophic mistake. If you were that guest, we hope you will wear the button as a badge of honor. Hey, nobody died, and maybe for a few minutes you were the center of a lot of attention! Every single member of OPSIG has made a similar mistake... and likely made quite a number of them.
The inspiration for the JACK WIDE AWARD is from a real-life character, of course named Jack Wide. In the late 1800s, James "Jumper" Wide was known for jumping between railcars.... leading to the possibly inevitable accident when he "missed" and lost both of his legs. To assist in performing his duties, Wide purchased a baboon named "Jack" and trained him to push his wheelchair and to operate railway signals under James' supervision. An official investigation was initiated after a concerned member of the public reported that a baboon was observed changing railway signals at Uitenhage near Port Elizabeth. The result of the investigation was that the railway decided to officially employ Jack Wide since his job competency was proven. The baboon was paid twenty cents a day and a half-bottle of beer each week. It is widely reported that in his nine years of employment with the railroad, Jack Wide the baboon never made a mistake on the railroad... not once. The moral of the story: Jack Wide, a baboon, got it right every time. Our Jack Wide Award honorees... well... didn’t do better than Jack could and did. This baboon was better at it than you were on your fateful day!
Welcome, friend, to the group. Recipients of the award are encouraged to wear the button but to maintain a modicum of secrecy otherwise. After all, it is nobody else's business... until they too stumble and fall, at which time hopefully a host in the know will induct them on the spot. And no, this award does not earn credit toward your possible Ninja Achievement. Obviously.
INQUIRIES ABOUT AWARDING THE JACK WIDE AWARD SHOULD BE MADE BY OPSIG MEMBERS TO: info (x) opsig-ap.org. You may or may not get a response, that is the nature of these things.
