Boondoggle (disambiguation)

Boondoggle is a North American term which has come to refer to the performance of useless or trivial tasks while appearing to be doing something important. In the United States, the key feature of this "art" is the waste of time and/or money involved. In Canada, however, the term has come to mean, more specifically, a government scandal involving the wasting or misallocation of public funds causing a project to be well over-budget, frequently more than double or triple the original cost.

Originally the term was boon doogle referring to a bone or metal ring used to secure the scarf of a Boy Scout (also called a woggle). American Scoutmaster Robert H. Link (died 1959) is credited with coining the term. From this, the term came to refer to the lanyards worn on the uniform of a scout, or to similar small decorative objects. Boondoggle has also come to refer in the USA for the plaiting craft known elsewhere as Scoubidou, since many such objects are made by this craft. For examples of "boondoggle" in this sense, refer to the article on the movie Napoleon Dynamite.

"Boondoggle" as a term for a project that wastes time and money came into common usage after a 1935 New York Times headline claimed that over $3 million had been spent teaching the jobless how to make boon doggles¹.

Boondoggling was a term used during the Great Depression in the 1930s. It describes the millions of jobs given to previously unemployed men and women during the depression to try to get the economy back up again, which was a part of the New Deal.

Footnotes

• Note 1: "$3,187,000 RELIEF IS SPENT TO TEACH JOBLESS TO PLAY; $19,658,512 VOTED FOR APRIL; 'BOON DOGGLES' MADE". April 4, 1935. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |org= ignored (help)

References

• Michael Quinion. "BOONDOGGLE". World Wide Words. Retrieved February 19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "The Origins of the Woggle". The Scout Information Centre: London. Accessed February 19, 2005 (PDF format)

External links

• Webpage on making boondoggles