SC - Cool term!

[harper at idt.net]

And it came to pass on 20 Nov 00, , that Medea wrote:

> I got the point people.  You have argued the fact till it's dropped 
> from exhaustion.  Let it alone now.  You have all made me feel bad. 
> If you had a problem with my spelling, you could have talked 
> privately,  but a huge discussion of it on list only succeeds in 
> making me (apparently the original perpetrator of the mistake) to 
> feel worse, 

I am very sorry that this discussion has made you feel bad.  I really 
don't believe that was anyone's intent.  I think you are 
misunderstanding the focus of the argument.  Although you are the 
one who first posted the question, the discussion is not about your 
spelling skills, but about the word itself.  Which is the original 
spelling -- with or without the 'h'?  And is the other way a mispelling 
or a regional variant?  And where did it come from?  Yes, these are 
trivial points, but many of us enjoy disputing trivial, nitpicky points 
about words and how they are used.  It's a game, an intellectual 
game, and dictionaries are part of this game.  You tossed a word 
into play, and we have been merrily batting it about with the help of 
our dictionaries.  The point of the game is not to make you feel 
bad, but to learn something about the word, and to enjoy the back-
and-forth with other similarly-minded people.  But the argument is 
not "can A'adeema spell?" but "what *is* the correct spelling of the 
word?"  It's not about you, really it's not.  It's about the word.

> and after the weekend I've just been through in the name 
> of SCA, I'm honestly fed up with the whole thing.  I get enough grief 
> as a Seneschal and so many personal problems at the moment that 
> honestly makes you consider packing it all in to just smile and 
> accept public humiliation as well.  
[snip]

I'm sorry to hear that.  That's an unpleasant situation to be in.  May 
I respectfully suggest that your local SCA headaches may be 
influencing your reaction to the discussion on this list?

> I'm sure this post will result in a whole lot of cries of outrage 
> from a lot of bruised egos, but at the moment, I really couldn't give 
> a damn.
> -A'adeema

I suspect that many of the reactions on the list will be like mine -- 
not outrage, but startlement that you took the discussion as 
personal criticism.  Perhaps you should wait a little while, and let 
some of the stress of the weekend wear off before you make a 
decision about leaving the list.


Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
mka Robin Carroll-Mann
harper at idt.net