[Sca-cooks] 13th Century Icelandic Fish Skin Tanning Techniques

[Philip Troy]

On Friday 26 October 2001 01:17, Peter Ryan wrote:

> As marshal of the group, I decided that everyone had to
> have a Laurel within 5 years, and that the best way to get a Laurel was to
> research a new field.

Ah, how do I question thee?
Let me count the ways, etc.

In no particular order, but working on the basic principle that we might as
well go whole hog here,

A) Is a marshal a local term for seneschal, or the officer in charge of
safety and rules for fighters, in which latter case

B) why is there such a defined opinion on laurel gestation period?

C) Is it not possible that research in a new field is as likely to go
unnoticed , or at least misunderstood, and therefore less likely to be given
the accolade than some of the more obvious stuff? Witness the scads of, say,
costume and C&I laurels compared to, say, silversmith laurels. And this in
spite of the fact that there is often a distinct "pretty discount" where
precious metals and other expensive materials are involved. There's a recent
candidate in the East about whom most people have begun their remarks with
the words, "Well, I don't know much about Middle Period Mughlai Toiletry
Articles, but this candidate sure _looks_ great," which leads me, in loco
pessimis, to ask, "Well, if you don't know anything about 13th Century
Icelandic Fish Skin Tanning Techniques [thanks, that was better than my
example], how do you know it's so great?"

Adamantius, who has never, ever, been called evil