SC - A Dilemma on what to cook for Dinner-HELP!

[Philip & Susan Troy]

"Decker, Terry D." wrote:
> 
> I was only commenting on the simile.
> 
> I might suggest that Platina's demise in 1481 probably has more to do with
> his not using maize than being non-progressive.
> 
> Da Vinci was known to be very progressive and might have actually used maize
> for polenta.  In the 23 years after maize was introduced to Europe, Leonardo
> lived primarily in Genoa (Milan) and Tuscany (Florence).  Since Tuscany
> adopted the grain early on, it is possible that he encountered and used the
> grain.

Sure he might. It's just that he might not. He doesn't say, while his
contemporary, the debatably non-progressive Platina, does, and what he
says is barley. What we're left with, after all the research and the
speculation to date, is a big "Who knows?"

This is akin to a fictional murder mystery: we have people with motive,
we have people with opportunity. Ultimately we'll probably find that
motive or opportunity isn't enough, and that the person committing the
crime is someone with both. "Could have" sounds very SCAdian, doesn't it?

My own real interest, until we actually have enough info to figure out
the big polenta question, is why Platina is being dissed by an
unfavorable comparison to Leonardo. It's kind of like saying Oppenheimer
was the village idiot for not being Einstein. I understand that this
wasn't you, of course.

And as for Platina's demise, I don't know offhand what the nominal cause
was, but I'd bet money it wasn't pellagra ;  ) . His one or two previous
near-demises appear to be the result of a tad _too much_ progressive
thinking. 

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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