SC - I am So Ashamed! (long)

[Jenne Heise]

> > My problem is not that it is Wiccan, but that it does not present an
> > accurate picture of medieval cooking.  Instead, it uses the veneer of
> > Wiccanism (is that a word?) to present the same shoddy research and
> > half-truths that we've tried so hard to dispel.

My problem is that a lot of people on this thread are assuming that the
reporter is accurately depicting the opinions of the authors and the slant
of the book, which is not necessarily the case (and in fact I would highly
doubt, given the way the book is presented in its advertising). I wouldn't
be surprised if the reporter saw "Medieval Honey Cakes" and started
feeding the authors loaded questions, like "But they used spices to
conceal the taste of rotted meat, didn't they?" On the other hand, nor
would I be surprised if the authors had looked at a few tertiary sources
or mentions of the middle ages in the kinds of cookbooks and spice books
you can get in the public library in most places, most of them 30-50 years
old, and gained an erroneous idea about medieval food which they used in
their book as a sidelight...

- -- 
Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise	      jenne at tulgey.browser.net
disclaimer: i speak for no-one and no-one speaks for me.
"I do my job. I refuse to be responsible for other people's managerial 
hallucinations." -- Lady Jemina Starker