SC - Okay, my life just got interesting...

[david friedman]

At 1:15 AM -0500 1/18/00, Christine A Seelye-King wrote:

>  You could make a habit of sponsoring small cooking
>contests, or Best Period Cookies will win a prize at the Princess' Tea,

Assuming you don't mind encouraging something as strikingly out of 
period as a "Tea," a social event that originated in the 18th century 
and (as Bierce said of the Masons) has been propagating backwards in 
time ever since. I would also cast a vote against "cookies," although 
not such a strong one; I am fairly sure the word is out of period, 
but there are period things that modern people might call cookies.

>As Princess, you can drop all kinds of suggestions and put your name on
>lots of activities, and encourage others to have these activities at
their events.

Yes--an important point. One of the main sources of royal power in 
the SCA is  visibility. You mostly can't make people do things--but 
you can inspire them to want to do things.

A general point, with regard to arts contests and the like... . While 
I am sure they sometimes serve a useful purpose, my own prejudice is 
against them because I think they encourage the idea that we are 
doing these things in order to get status rather than because they 
are worth doing. They suggest the modern American view that culture 
is something like cod liver oil--it tastes horrid but is good for 
you. I would rather encourage an art by finding places where it 
actually serves a purpose--making period nibbles and giving them to 
all and sundry, telling period stories to people in the shower line 
at Pennsic, and the like.

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