[Sca-cooks] Disagreeing Politely: Was: SCA 50thAnniversaryChallenge

[Nick Sasso]

-----Original Message-----
At the risk of being fussed at for quoting too much, I'm going to leave the
original stuff intact, below, because I can't figure out where to shorten
it!  I think, Good Master A, that I am disagreeing with you - sort of - and
agreeing with Stefan - sort of - when he said that those items weren't all
separate things.  I probably would class all the comfits as one, and the
dragees as another.  It's something like chocolate pudding, vanilla
pudding, coconut pudding, etc. Shoud they be classes as three separate
items or all one type (puddings)?  For the purpose of the 50th Anniversary
Challenge, I'd say that someone would be fudging the idea of the challenge
if they classed these as three separate projects.  So, counting caraway,
anise (and possibly cinnamon) comfits as three separate projects would be
missing the concept of the challenge.  They, in my fussy opinion, would be
one item done three ways.  The almond and hazelnut dragees could
conceivably be a second project.   > > > > > > >


Unless there are hard and fast rules laid down by someone, then wouldn't
this fall into a sort of "Challenge by Choice"?   We each chose to accept
the challenge to whatever level and degree we each chose, is how I see it.
We each decide what we wish the goal to be and in what way we wish to
accomplish it.  Leveying my values and goals upon somone else's
accomplishment would seem possibly egocentric or dismissive of the
individual's choice and goals.

My choice to prepare 50 different sausage recipes from various cultures and
times is my thing . . . painting 50 pictures on a pieces of paper may be
yours (ilumination).  Which is the more admirable and "noble" or
"challenging"?  How does it stack up against 40 pilgrimages to medieval
religious sites?  Do we compare money spent, time spent, quantity of
produced work (weight, count, volume), knowledge gained, knowledge
proliferated, new skills learned, old skills utilized in a particularly
challenging manner, repetition versus novelty, historic relevance,
administrative skills, languages, how far back to raw materials did it
start, documentation and primary sources . . . yadda . . . yadda

Who exactly is the judge, and why is their value/opinion any better than
mine?

pacem et bonum,
niccolo difrancesco

(is there no value is using one skill in 50 different ways?)