Whine, whine, whine

[dennis grace]

Greetings Cousins,

My but it's getting warm in here.  Perhaps we could turn down some of these
flames.  Take for example the title of the posting to which I respond:
"Whine, whine, whine."  Can anyone argue that this is not an intentional
insult?  Likewise, what are we to make of the following:

> hb> Although making 500 to
> hb> 1000 combat arrows is a differnt kind of fun, ask HL Gillie.
> hb> Especially when about 20% them will come back broken just in frount
> hb> of the fletching by a stick jopck stomping on it as he leave the
> hb> field, mad about being killed by a damned archer!! 
>
>Awww...  Pity the poor archers.  Their arrows get broken and they have to make
>new ones.

Certainly this line of reasoning is already devaluative.  I don't see the
point of this sort of oversimplification.  The archer in question is making
a valid point and Baron Aodhan's following "analogies"--

>What about the scribe who slaves for hours and hours over a County scroll only
>to find out later that a drink was dumped on it and the scroll ruined before
>the Count even got it home?
>
>What about the seamstress who works for weeks sewing new costumes for Their
>Highnesses' Coronation and never sees them again beuause they're wadded up in a
>box in a pile of similar boxes in a regalia storage shed on the other end of
>the kingdom?

--do nothing to diminish the validity of the gentleman's argument.  He is
speaking of the norm--Baron Aodhan's "analogues," while certainly
frustrating in and of themselves, are exceptional.  These examples only
serve to belittle the man for feelings of frustration over clearly exampled
disrespect.  Hey, I'm a heavy fighter; I hate archers (in a battlefield
context :->), but I find the all too common occurence Mr. Billings reports
abhorrent. 
 
Finally, I would like to thank Baron Aodhan for helping to make my point
concerning archers.  Y'all may recall that I argued in favor of an archery
award because the situation of archers is unique from that of other artists
and from other warriors.  As the good baron notes: 

<snip>
>[Archery] *has* grown enough interest
>that archery only events are not uncommon.  I haven't seen any period
>encampments only, or costuming only, or weaving only events...

Yours in Service to a Flame-Free Kingdom

Sir Lyonel Oliver Grace
________________________________________
Dennis G. Grace
Postmodern Medievalist
Division of Rhetoric and Composition
Department of English
University of Texas at Austin
amazing at mail.utexas.edu
___________________

Baro, metetz en guatge                    |  Lords, pawn your castles,
Chastels e vilas e ciutatz                |  your towns and cities.
Enanz qu'usquecs no'us guerreiatz         |  Before you're beat to the draw,
                                                    draw your swords.

                   -- Bertran de Born (a really fun Viscount)