[Sca-cooks] OT Authenticity Police: since we're castigating extremists anyway...

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Hullo, the list!

As long as we're on about religious fanatics and generally those who
would impose their beliefs on others, or their beliefs _about_ others on
others, I thought it was worth mentioning that yesterday I was handed a
photocopy from Saturday's [Westchester?] Journal-News in which a
faithful reader of Miss Manners writes to complain about Authenticity
Police. Tne writer describes them accurately in concept, but would have
us believe they're quite common in all living-history/re-enactment
groups. Miss Manners actually makes fairly intelligent suggestions, I
think. It's a fairly long article or I would copy it here. Maybe one of
our librarians can find it online someplace?

It had always been my impression that for the most part, authenticity
police are up there with Men In Black, Silent Black Army Helicopters,
and people who have had run-ins with Niemann-Marcus's cookie division.
In short, you can't find anybody who has actually had the experience,
prepared to name the person who lifted their skirts to check the
underwear fabric, but everybody knows someone who knows someone who has
dealt with authenticity police.

Not to necessarily start another huge thread on this, and I'm not really
asking for a show of hands, but how real are these people perceived to be?

Adamantius
--
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com

"It was so blatant that Roger threw at him.  Clemens gets away with
things that get other people thrown out of games.  As long as they
let him get away with it, it's going  to continue." -- Joe Torre, 9/98