[Sca-cooks] Overdocumentation

[Daniel Phelps]

Oddly the issue of documentation has recently come up on the nautical list
as well.  Some had said that they had voted with their feet when they felt
that their efforts had been poorly treated at A/S competitions.  I responded
that ultimately I decided upon another direction after a project I had
labored long
and hard over was in my opinion slighted.  I said "they want documentation
I'll give them documentation".  I chose to recreat an entirely insubstantial
"object".   Thus my recreation of the "fully functional" hole in a 12th
century privy seat came to be.  I asked them to judge not the plank but the
hole as they would judge not the frame of a painting but the painting
itself.  The article is on the Flori- if you want to read it

www.florilegium.org/files/PERSONAL/12thC-Hole-art.rtf

or available
at:

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Pantheon/7756/daniel.html

 You should have seen the look the Minister of A/S gave it when I unveiled
it.  He didn't know what to do... until the senior laurel in the kingdom
came over to read the documentation and started laughing.  A number of
laurels have commented since that they have recommended the article that
came out of it to people as an example of both documentation and
documenting the seemingly undocumentable.  I and the judges had a long
discussion on what entries might be acceptable in A/S/ competition,.   It
was judged acceptable by the way.

As a side note I don't know about anyone else but I tend to write my
documentation such that it might form the basis of an article.  Why go to
all that effort and not get the most bang for your buck I say.

Daniel