SC - "allow," "acceptable," and other unfortunate locutions
david friedman
ddfr at best.com
Mon Sep 11 19:01:52 PDT 2000
At 3:23 PM -0400 9/11/00, Morgan Cain wrote:
>So, do you allow modern versions of period items, or require that
>people make the period version? Just curious. When aiming for ease
>in feeding about 80 persons at least once per day for the four days
>of Estrells, something-teen hours from home, I would accept boughten
>pretzels as an acceptable variation.
On a tangent from the current discussion...
I think it is a mistake to put the questions in terms of "allow" or
"acceptable variation." That implies that we are dealing with a
binary variable--things either are all right or they are not. If they
are not all right we shouldn't do them, if they are all right there
is no reason to improve them.
The right categories, in my view, are "better" and "worse," not
"acceptable" and "not acceptable." Blatantly modern food is
preferable to starving. Modern food that isn't obviously modern (for
instance, modern sausages, pretzels, etc.) is better than blatantly
modern food. Period food made with modern equipment and ingredients
is better than modern food. Period food made ... .
- --
David/Cariadoc
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/
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