SC - General rant (started out as coffee/tea, then was rose sekanjabin)

[kat]

	Hmmmm... apparently there has been some sort of error in translation here...  The lady in Southern Shores, from whom I sampled that lovely rose sekanjabin (no, I don't know if the word is used in the proper form here; and how DO you pronounce it anyway?) assured me that she used a goodly quantity of rose water in her mixture.  Last time I priced rose water, it was well over $3 for a bottle containing just over a cup... 

	Now, I don't know about all of you; but I personally tend to calculate an error factor into my budget when trying new recipes.  There is always a chance that I will burn/spill/ruin/misunderstand directions for the first batch... so if I'm trying something new I need to make a few small test-batches first.  
	While I agree that sugar is cheap, wine vinegar (GOOD wine vinegar, anyway; I may be poor but I'm still a snob about what I put in my body) is not.  Mint leaves, being the "trendy" salad herb they are now, run about $2 for a teeny bunch at my Safeway...

	But all this is just picking nits, and taking me further and further from my initial point, which is:  Simply because people aren't doing exactly what *you* (the generic you, NOT a specific you) are doing does **Not** mean they aren't trying as hard as you are.  And they don't like to hear that they aren't trying at all, or that they have "given up," or that they are being lazy, etc., etc.  If we weren't all trying to learn and get better and improve, then what on Earth are we doing on this list?
	Telling someone they have given up trying when they're doing the best they can and have proved their eagerness to learn is, IMHO, the moral equivalent of criticizing a beginning French student for misusing a future pluperfect verb tense:  We ain't there yet.  Give us time.

	And bringing the discussion back to its original point:  I too have "housemothered" a group of fighters  (Hmmm... side note:  What IS the collective for fighters?  Gaggle?  Pride?  Murder??)  and frankly I'd sooner have a root canal than try to wake the head of my then-household (or my Baron, for that matter) without a cup of coffee in one hand.  

	Does it really matter what you do if you're doing it in your own tent, if it really IS easier and cheaper and safer and faster?  

	(Euuuuwwwwww.... medieval contraceptives!!! <<shudder>>)

	Anyway, hope I haven't offended.  Just trying to point out there's more than one point of view; and some of us (as in the example of Cariadoc's gracious lady and her imitation linen) can't always achieve the same levels as others.  I don't expect a woman raising 4 kids alone to sew all her own garb by hand; when she does I'm willing to stand up and cheer.

	And 59 cents for 2 liters is the price of generic soda pop...  :-)

	- kat (done with this topic, really.)

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