[Sca-cooks] Local Feast Disappointment

[Johnna Holloway]

I often wonder about how Facebook will impact the research of various SCA
activities. If everyone resorts to Facebook for their answers and these answers are brief or incomplete, what will happen 
to the value placed on original research or have those days already passed? Does it matter how much of an educational organization we are if Facebook is good enough and the default research resource?

We've already seen members demand online sources only. Books and articles are too much trouble.
Suggesting someone buy a book is an undue burden or that they consult something in a library---  well that just means 
that you are saying their research is suspect, Too many A&S activities are all encompassing meaning all research is now an opinion and everyone's opinion is equally valid. We even applaud this because we encourage the effort (numbers of participants, projects, items made, etc) and do not examine the results. (This means that someone can state that 1086 is the date of Hastings and that's perfectly ok. Their research is as valid as someone who holds to the 'old fashioned' view that it was 1066. Dare anyone suggest the former read a book or investigate and well one is told one is being disagreeable, impolite and toxic to the concept that everyone is welcome!  In fact many of these lists forbid disagreements, so one can't even correct the inaccuracies because one is just being disagreeable in pointing out the 'so called' errors. Librarians are not welcome!)

There's also an idea going around that all you need to do a medieval feast or write a medieval cookbook is to just yahoo the word medieval and cooking or name of dish. You don't have to read an actual historical cookbook or look at historical recipes or historical accounts, it's perfectly ok to just enter a couple of words and trust the web.

Will we continue to see authentic or attempts at authentic foods or dishes? Will any make the effort? And if the inauthentic is recognized and praised and rewarded with awards and titles, well
why bother researching  or serving anything other than modern dishes?

The question might be: Why can't we search for authentic and edible and reward those people who do? 

Johnnae

> 
>> -------- Original Message --------
>> From: <lilinah at earthlink.net>
>> Date: Wed, November 06, 2013 8:53 pm
>> 
>> Recently the menu for a popular local feast was posted on FB.snipped
>> I posted a link to Dame Alys Katherine's 1996 article, "Of Course, It's 'Course' or Remove 'Remove' " - SRSLY folks, 17 years have passed! Don't we learn anything? The cook replied that she had seen me post the link before, she'd read the article, they were still "removes", and she uses electricity and flush toilets. I can't find the post, or i'd quote it; perhaps someone suggested she delete it. I certainly intended NOT to reply.