[Sca-cooks] Pennsic Iron Chef-revisited

[LrdRas at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/28/01 11:00:28 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
debra.dunbar at aspenpubl.com writes:

<< If cooking contests get people excited and interested in historical
cooking,
 than I am all for it, regardless of whether the contest itself is
 documentable.

    Wrynne
    (who has only had one cup of coffee this morning) >>

Although I usually have some concern with 'the end justifies the means'
viewpoints, the main problem I have with this 'contest' is that people may
see it as a 'period' practice.

There is a grave danger of passing on misinformation in the form of real
historical practise when they begin incorporating blatantly modern practises
into the SCA. Certainly, if such things are going to occur, plagerism of
media terminology into a cutsy pseudo-historical contest is not the way to
go, IMO. If it is, why not have 'Nascar' cart races, Castle Tourney Video
Awards, Wichblade Boffer Tourneys?

Where does it end? Encouragement of new members to dress in  medieval costume
while participating in modern activities is, IMO, not only a disservice to
the new member but appears to go well beyond the purposes of the SCA which
purposes are educational.

While your credentials are impressive and I have no doubt that you are
thoroughly educated in your particular discipline, there are those who have
not bowed to the pressure of spending thousands of dollars for a pretty
scroll to grace their walls. Institutional education is not in any way
necessary to have a complete and thorough knowledge of any particular
subject.

The discovery that dinosaurs are warm blooded and that they didn't all die
off with the subsequent 'reclassification of Ave as a sub-class of Dinosauria
is a case in point. The experts were wrong for years before they either
finally admiited they might have been wrong or went to their grave in their
ignorance.

Important to this group in particular is the continuous proliferation of the
' spices were used in period to mask the taste of rotting meat' lie. A week
does not go by when there is not a television program, classroom lecture, or
article in print where well-respected experts in medieval history repeat this
lie as  'fact'. I am amazed that they can present such a blatant error with a
straight face.

While the SCA is a 'game' to many, playing that game does not need to be
historically inaccurate. It is through the efforts of  folks like you that do
know what it was all about and who encourage the recreation and understanding
of period practices that the game takes on any signigicant meaning at all.

Yours in Service to the Dream,
al-Sayyid A'aql ibn Rashid al-Zib, AoA, His Majesty's Tailor, OSyc, OKey and
many other pretty pictures of thistles, wrens, herons, acorns, and saints on
my walls