[Sca-cooks] Re: Documentation "Fun"...was "Potatoes and personal issues"

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On May 18, 2006, at 7:47 PM, Martha Oser wrote:

> Duriel writes
>> Besides, documentation is fun, interesting & challenging.  And  
>> satisfying, too.
>>  I think it's great to serve a wonderful, surprising dish  
>> accompanied with several pages of research.
>
> Well, YOU may think documentation is fun, and so may lots of other  
> folks, but not everyone does.
> Personally, I find the history of food (and a great many other  
> things) fascinating, but I find research is a DRAG.

So how do you learn about this subject that fascinates you? Osmosis?

>   This is the main reason I haven't gone back to school to get a  
> "Pile it Higher and Deeper" degree - all it really means is having  
> to do research for the rest of my life!

A lot of people are in that position, but think of it in terms of, "I  
haven't found anything yet that interests me enough to warrant the  
extra work..."

> I'd rather cook good food and serve it to appreciative people, not  
> beat them over the head with my phone-book sized pile of  
> documentation while they're eating.

Can you name a single example of anyone actually doing that? Or a  
case where documentation precludes quality? Or are you perhaps  
exaggerating to strengthen your point, or suggesting that good food  
and good documentation are mutually exclusive?

One of the fun things about the feast that we served last weekend was  
a point where one person expressed the opinion that it was more  
important to serve good food than to serve documentable period food.  
I didn't say a word; I just looked down at the first course we were  
assembling, and the guy said, "Of course, if the food is good _and_  
documentable,  I guess that's the best of both worlds..."

We all just grinned...

Adamantius




"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