SC - Troll booths, fees, and random opinion

[Morgan Cain]

Hi, y'all.  I'm back.  After a computer meltdown and job change, I've gotten
back online and am slowly hooking into all the lists again.  Seems some of
them were breeding while I was off-line, too.

I'll be at Gulf Wars but arrive late on Friday (it's not one of my flex
Fridays and I'm saving the little vacation I get for Lilies and Pennsic).
If you want to meet me, I teach on Saturday; they keep moving the times so
just look at the onsite schedule.

As for the term "troll," I always thought it came from the story about The
Three Billy Goats Gruff.  Do you remember it from childhood?  The three
billy goats have to get across the bridge where the mean troll lives and
pulls billy goats (and other creatures) down to be eaten.

About fees, I remain astonished (after two years) that in Ansteorra the
feast fee is included in the site fee.  Most of the time I have to look on
it as an additional donation to the group because I cannot eat feast due to
(1) all the meat in it is pork (the time this happened, I could eat the
mushroom salad, apple moyse, cheese and fresh apples, and luckily I like
apples; it is now one of my examples in the "How to Plan a Feast" class), or
(2) I have to be someplace about feast time and don't make it back to eat
anything.  (Last 12th Night I commuted between Dallas and the site three
times.  Missed the pizza in Dallas and the feast at site.  Thank goodness
for the dried fruit and granola bars I always keep in the car for such
emergencies!)  I asked one time when I saw that there was no site-only fee
and got a long and somewhat snotty message that "it's the way Ansteorra does
things, it's easier on the cooks to assume that everybody will eat feast and
this way we don't look inhospitable by telling some people that they cannot
eat feast because we are limiting the numbers."  So I gave up and decided
that Ansteorrans are lazy with math.

(Oh, hi, Your Excellency!)

They do a family cap, which I guess helps the larger families, but I wonder
about those with dietary restrictions or very finicky children who refuse to
eat anything that doesn't involve cartoon characters.  Just seems unfair to
me to force people to pay for food they cannot eat.

I've lived and travelled in most Kingdoms, and Ansteorra is the only one I
know of that has a Kingdom-wide (as I was told, I mostly do camping events
here or things that don't have a feast) policy of putting the two costs
together and no option for site-only.  On occasion a group in another
Kingdom will do it but it's usually a low amount and a simple meal.

(I am also of the opinion that anybody who charges double-digits for a meal
doesn't know how to budget, is trying to cover for an excessively expensive
site, or is trying to make a pile of money, but this message is long enough
for a first message back.)

                                        ---= Morgan


PS:  I gave up bubblegum for Lent.  Not Catholic but I figure it's a good
exercise.