SC - Re: [Trimaris] Highnesses, Lownesses, and Period Cooking.

[david friedman]

At 3:48 PM -0500 2/29/00, R.A. Duncan Cusdtom Made Knives Merc Swords wrote:

>If you make a period feast that less than half of the people in the
>hall can choke down, then why should they pay for it ?

If you make a non-period feast that less than half of the people in 
the hall can choke down, why should they pay for it?

Suppose someone says "don't buy Duncan's knives. Who wants a knife 
that can't cut." Wouldn't you interpret that as a comment about your 
knives, not about dull knives? Yet you are taking a comment about 
period cooking and treating it as if it were a comment about bad 
cooking. That only makes sense if all period food is bad, just as my 
hypothetical statement only makes sense if you only make dull knives.

>  Neither I nor the Princesss suggested  purely non-period feasts, and
>espacially not bugger king, what was suggested was that we be able to enjoy
>the food, whether period or not.

That isn't what was suggested. Perhaps it was what was intended. But 
nowhere in Her Highnesses statement do I find either an attack on bad 
OOP cooking or anything restricting her comments about period food to 
bad period food.

>  In short, lighten up. There are what some eight hundred or so years worth
>of recipes from about fifty different nations/cultures, surely a good cook
>can find  a few dozen dishes of a less than fiery nature to serve for a few
>feasts.

As a practical matter, there are about four hundred years worth of 
recipes from considerably fewer than fifty cultures. But that isn't 
the point. Her Highness didn't say "during our reign, we want good 
period food." She made it clear that she was opposed to *any* feast 
that consisted entirely of period food.

Let me try again, with your craft:

""While I am on the subject of merchanting, let me address knives in 
general.  More
than anything, his Highness and I want our populace to have knives 
that actually
cut.  So when we step up, we request that merchants avoid selling only
handmade knives.  We do not mind if they sell some handmade knives,
however, we wish them also to sell knives that ordinary people can actually
cut their food with!  We understand the reason that people make 
handmade knives,
but in some cases our  populace is paying the price for 
craftsmanship, and their
twentieth-century need for knives that actually work makes them 
unable to appreciate
the skill and effort that went into making a hand forged knife."

That is a fairly close copy of what Her Highness actually wrote, with 
your craft substituted for mine. Read it and tell me that it doesn't 
imply that handmade knives don't work well.

David/Cariadoc
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/