[Sca-cooks] Safety in the Kitchen

[Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Barbara Benson:
>  > Adamantius
>>  You might need to teach people how to walk with knives in their
>>  hands. Professional cooks usually walk with their arms hanging
>>  straight down, with the knife blade held firmly, but not stiffly,
>>  against the thigh, point down, edge back.
>
>I was unaware that this is the "official"way to carry knives. I frequently
>carry them that way. One Friday evening I left the feast kitchen and went
>out into the main hall in search of someone. I stopped everyone I knew (and
>many I didn't) and asked if they had seen the desired person. No-one I spoke
>to had, but they were all polite to the extreme of being nervous. I thought
>it strange until I returned to the kitchen to what I had been doing and
>realized I had been carrying my large Cleaver alongside my right leg the
>entire time. Inspires helpfulness.

If you do it right, nobody even notices you're carrying it. But then 
I don't usually carry a cleaver, more likely a modern chef's knife 
(or my cut-down butcher's machete, but _that_ has a sheath). 
Interestingly enough, I had occasion today to see part of an old 
video of a Robert Urich TV series (so sue me: "Spenser For Hire" was 
better than a lot of its contemporary competition -- I haven't seen 
the movies made for cable TV, with a different cast -- and the books 
are _great_). There were several scenes of the main character (who is 
a private detective, ex-prize-fighter with something of a physical 
fitness obsession) running with an automatic pistol, held in exactly 
the same way. Apparently the basic method transcends the tool form.

My brother used to work for the New York City Transit Authority, and 
once got on a crowded train during rush hour, carrying a 
government-issue, four-foot-long chain saw. It took him quite a while 
to figure out why all sorts of people moved out of his way and 
offered him a seat...

>Several people have mentioned shoes already and I would like to second (or
>third) the importance of them. It may just be a problem inherent to the
>Southern Reaches but we seem to have a fairly large minority that
>categorically refuses to wear shoes. When these good gentles come to my
>kitchen to volunteer and I ask them to put on shoes they frequently refuse.
>My response is thank you but no thank you.
>
>I have recently had a particulary ugly problem with a lady in a puddle hem
>dress. It was at an outdoor cooking site and it did not occur to me to
>request that she lift her skirts to confirm the prescence of shoes - after
>all she had volunteered to run a grill. I did not find out that she was
>shoeless until I had to pack her off to the chiurgen because she had stepped
>on a full sized, red hot coal.
>
>It may be tacky, but from now on I will insist on a visual confirmation of
>shoes. I am considering something along the lines of the typical Marshal's
>inquiry "Are you properly Armed and Armored?". I was unable to track her
>down later, so I found the chiurgen and she only managed 2nd degree burns.
>Luckily her frequent non-wearing of shoes had produced quite a callous layer
>on her feet, but the chiurgen said that as the burn healed she would lose
>that callous and reaquiring it would take some time.

Ooh! Ooh! I know this one! You need one of those signs sleazy bars 
and restaurants (usually near beaches) sometimes have in the 
entrances: "Shoes and shirts required for service." You have the 
option to cross out the part about shirts, I guess, since, they tell 
me, shirtless squires are in high demand as dishwashers. Your call. 
I'd leave it as is.

But seriously, you just need to make it clear to people that they are 
there to help you solve problems and help your group, and that one of 
the problems you have to solve, and in which you need help from them, 
is the problem of their personal safety.

Adamantius