SC - RE:SC- Brizzare Hobby-NOT! OT

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Stefan li Rous wrote:
> 
> The SCA does have a rather blotchy reputation across many fields
> and areas. Many SCA folks could be a little more diplomatic and
> concerned for the impressions they give when talking to folks outside
> the SCA. The SCA, as with many other group,s has a large number of
> folks who consider themselves "experts" and will tell you all about
> it, yet not listen to anyone else.

Say it ain't so, Lord Joe!!! Us??? Moi?
 
> Fortunately, in some fields, through the hard work of many people.
> things are changing.

Yes, but the thing to remember is to take the Jack Webb approach, i.e.
"Just the facts, ma'am..." The biggest obstacle to a SCAdian of the type
described above in making an argument intended to be taken seriously is
_stating_that he or she is a member of the SCA. It is seen as a bit of a
stigma in some academic circles, unfortunately, because it's not only
usually irrelevant, but doesn't by any means make the speaker an
authority. At best, it _might_ mean the speaker has done some
unspecified amount of research.

To put it another way, how many times have we seen, even on this list at
times, people say, "I'm right because I have a doctorate in thinkology,"
or medieval history, or whatever, which is often an intimidation tactic
rather than anything relevant to the discussion? The standard response
tends to be, "Well, what's your point?" Mentioning that we're in the SCA
tends to get about the same, or a worse, reaction, and not necessarily
without justification.

On the other hand, if one wants to say something like, "I've done some
experiments with the recipes Mr. Lagasse worked with, and feel that it
would have been an even better educational tool to adapt the recipes
using ingredients as close as possible to the foods that were available
in medieval Europe, rather than ingredients that were not. An accurate
representation of medieval court cookery would have omitted cornstarch,
potato starch, paprika, etc. Here's a random list of surviving medieval
cookbooks that don't mention these ingredients at all, and I believe
they wouldn't have appeared in European cookbooks until sometime after
1492 anyway. Here's Mrs. Acton's cookbook, or Mrs. Glasse's, in the late
eighteenth - early nineteenth century, which suggest these ingredients
were still not common in England even then... Here's Mrs. Beeton, in the
1860's, showing early English use of these ingredients."

Okay, so the potato is an exception to that last part, and this is a
mase-up example, but you get the idea.

Remember, it takes only one SCAdian with too much time on his hands, a
computer and a questionable sense of humor or taste to get us all
labelled by TV networks, universities, etc., as cranks. Would the people
who e-mailed The Food Network like to forward their messages to the
cooks' list for us all to read and critique in the way they critiqued
Lagasse's show? I'm sure most were tactful and informative, but are we
prepared to bet there wasn't a single stinker among them that did _not_
mention the SCA?        

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com