[Sca-cooks] You know you're in the SCA when... (was Hard liquor in period recipes, was Adamantius pants)

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach rtanhil:
>The following quoted reference is included only to
>illustrate a point I find amusing. I don't find it offensive
>in any way (and hope others don't either). I notice it most
>in the SCA, although I suppose that if I hung out in more
>academic circles I might notice it there, too.
>
>As a group, we expect footnoted discussions.
>
>"I read it in a book" is a common supporting argument, but
>lots of things are written in books, and not all of them are
>true. When reading a book for factual information, the first
>thing I turn to is the bibliography. If there isn't any, or
>if seems inadequate, I tend to regard the contents of a book
>with scepticism and tend to read mostly for broad ideas, if
>I read it at all. If the bibliography is extensive and
>includes a number of primary sources, I tend to read with
>more of an eye for details and try to remember the title and
>author, if nothing else, to be able to point to it later and
>say "I read it here."
>
>I'm not trying to discourage this. We're all trying to make
>our game more real. We just need to remember not to take it
>personally.
>
>Berelinde

These are good points. I like to look at it as working with the best 
information we can get at any given time, and freely sharing the 
level of that information's quality.

So, if all we can come up with is, "I read it in a book," there's no 
shame in that. On the other hand, if we can provide better 
documentation when trying to make a point, so much the better, and if 
the other person's documentation trumps my "read it in a book," well, 
kest lah gwerry.

I'm guilty of this myself, occasionally, because I have an excellent 
memory for things I've read in the distant past (I remember, and 
sometimes forget, snippets of things I read, but never, it seems, 
remember things I _haven't_ read), but not always where I read them. 
Every so often we discuss bread and butter, and I remember that I 
once read an English account of weird Huguenot schoolchildren eating 
same, but can never remember the source. I once hunted it down 
because I got tired of not knowing. Posted documentation to this 
list. And promptly forgot it again. I read it in a book, though ;-).

I'm sure it has something to do with my pants...

I think the greater danger, from a reasoning standpoint, comes when 
we accept some documented concept as empirical fact because we A) 
read it in a book, or B) read it in 287 books, and immediately 
dismiss the 288th book which disagrees with the other 287.

And then there seems to be a phenomenon which may or may not be 
peculiar to Laurels, wherein they read one book on a given topic 
(we're supposed to broaden our horizons and learn new things whenever 
possible), and are suddenly experts on that topic. Doesn't matter if 
the author of the book never actually shoed a horse before writing 
that book on shoeing horses. It got published, and is therefore 
empirical fact to some people.

As far as solving problems like this goes, I think we could all stand 
to remember that both "I read it in a book," and "This is well 
documented in such-and-such a manuscript source from the early 15th 
century, and commented on by Professor So-and-So of Such-and-Such 
University, in This Book, ISBN Blah Blah Blah," are both statements 
equating to, "Here's why I think what I think, rightly or wrongly." 
Similarly, when more information is requested, we should not assume 
it's anything more than that, and react to such a request as if 
someone had said, "Hey, Stultus Maximus, you're wrong and here's 
where the whole world finds out about it."

Do people like that name, BTW? Sometimes I think of changing mine...

Adamantius

>
>>
>>  > I have seen sources sighting a distillery in Ireland as
>>  > early as the 6th  century AD.
>>
>>  Any recollection of which sources? I know that the
>>  Encyclopedia  Britannica says something about distilling
>  > in Britain... and suggests  R.J. Forbes, A Short History
>>  of the Art of Distillation: From the  Beginnings Up to the
>>  Death of Cellier Blumenthal (1970) as a source
>>
>>  > Vodka was well established in the Russias as early as
>>  > the 10th century  according to records of Genovese
>>  Traders.
>>
>>  *puzzled* why were there Genovese Traders in Russia at
>>  that time?  And where can we find these records-- these
>>  descriptions would be  invaluable to those of us in the
>>  States studying period Slavic culture.
>>
>>  > and I have seen several recipes from a Roman cookbook of
>>  > the 2nd century BC  that call for distilled spirits,
>>  although wine was much more common.
>>
>>  Which cookbook, and which recipes?
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-- 






"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la 
brioche!" / "If they have no bread, you have to say, let them eat 
brioche."
	-- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques 
Rousseau, "Confessions", pub 1782

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
	-- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry 
Holt, 07/29/04