[Sca-cooks] Sca-cooks Digest, Vol 17, Issue 51

Lilinah lilinah at earthlink.net
Wed Sep 19 16:16:52 PDT 2007


Suey wrote:
>     I think this is getting a little out of hand. My understanding is
>that SCA Cooks is an organization to discuss Medieval and Renaissance
>food. Death rates during this period due to unbalanced nutrition, for
>example, is an acceptable topic for me but not period or current
>mortality caused by births that unless diet orientated. I do not
>consider Pirates' Day, Peace Day or other subjects brought up of late
>which are not related to period of food orientated topics acceptable
>even if a bottle of rum is thrown in. A few months ago someone
>complained about a message of mine being too wordy. Not only do I see
>the point but also find it disconcerting when hungry for knowledge about
>period foods, cooking and related customs to have to weigh through
>non-pertinent information.
>
>     Please correct me if my idea of the purpose of SCA Cooks is erroneous.

Well, it's true that the SCA Cooks list is indeed mostly to talk 
about food in relation to the SCA, either food that's "period" for 
the SCA - which by convention is from from the Fall of Rome to the 
end of the 16th C. - or SCA feasts with not necessarily period food - 
although those of us who post try to nudge people closer to 
historical recipes.

But we are also a group of on-line friends (and sometimes off-line 
friends, too), so topics do veer off:
-- into food that is not from the period covered by the SCA - we are 
cooks, so we are interested in all sorts of food from all sorts of 
times and cultures;
-- occasionally (and usually briefly) into (potentially) SCA topics 
not related to food - like pirates or pregnancy;
-- sometimes into things not related to food or the SCA, like Harry 
Potter, Talk Like a Pirate Day, and other topics generally of 
interest to a fairly large number of the members who post (it's hard 
to know what lurkers are interested in, although you lurkers out 
there are free to speak up :-)

Some of us do post long wordy messages - i often do that - so you 
don't need to worry too much about the occasional long post. I find 
it helps others read a long wordy e-mail if there are more 
"paragraph" breaks (double line returns) than one would normally use 
in printed text. One large unbroken block of text, even if correct 
for print, can be hard to read in e-mail.

Also, there's often someone complaining about something. That's 
normal, and not a problem as long as the person is also a positive 
commentator most of the time. Since you are a constructive 
contributor, your opinions deserve to be heard here. On the other 
hand, we have had people on the list who pretty much only posted 
criticisms of other posters, of medieval feasts, of butter and sugar, 
etc. - clearly they didn't fit in too well :-)

I generally don't care for lists that have a lot of chatty, off-topic 
posts. But i've been on this list since... mmm... March 1999, so to 
me, it's like my home list. And in the off-topic posts we learn about 
each other.

And most of the time if things truly get out of hand Gunthar, the 
list owner, will tell us to stop talking about it.

I'd happily give up most of the other lists i'm on (well over 200 - 
no, i don't read them all daily - i have "read web only" membership 
for most of them). But i would hate to give up this one. I couldn't 
have made the successful feasts i have without the assistance of this 
list. Plus i'd miss my friends!

I find this list to be on or close to topic most of the time. It also 
can be very chatty. And friendly and helpful and sometimes even good 
for a chuckle or even a laugh.

So i don't mind the occasional slip out of SCA-related food.
-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita



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