Mission

Happy Birthday! Kiss Dobbie for me.

I'm a freebooter. I'm here to learn, play with a bunch of cool people and write a book about period pirate surgeons some day. If the public gets to be a part of all that that and enjoy it on some level, even better. The movie pirate thing will most likely never go away - it's too deeply embedded in the popular cultural mind. Our "national holiday" (so to speak) is evidence of this. Talk Like a Pirate Day essentially means "Arrrr!" This is why I think the establishment of period accuracy needs must fall on the event. If an event doesn't want fantasy pirates, all they have to do is say so. The proof is in the pudding.

Nah, it's all good. It's really two sides of the same coin. In fact, add in fantasy and it's three sides of the same coin - entertainment. Cuz' if it ain't entertaining on some level, most people aren't interested in coming to see it. (Some people are interested in pure education, but they usually go to school for that. I shudder to think how many things I've said about period surgery that were wrong because I forgot something or hadn't read the right resource yet.) There are people who only want to reenact in the manner it actually would have been done and as accurately as can be done (as previous posters attest), but I find they often don't really care that much about entertaining the public. (Although, strictly speaking, they are entertaining themselves and their co-participants with their accuracy, so even then...)

I actually like the somewhat chaotic nature of the pirate re-enactors I've met. If this were to become formal and involve joining things, paying dues and/or adhering to rules, I would most likely wander off and find a new hobby. While such order would support a more pure form of re-enactment and represent history better, it would also necessarily create divisions between "serious" re-enactors and fantasy pirates. I would miss the fantasy pirates. I try very hard to create a PC accurate portrayal of surgery - without doing operations, as I explained. (I enjoy being a teacher far, far, far more than being an actor. This is recreation for me, after all.) So that's what I want to do. If you want to create a strictly period accurate portrayal (well, as far as we can determine what's "strictly" period accurate), that's what you want to do. So by all means, do it. You'll set a good example. But just because you want to work hard to look PC doesn't mean that everyone else does. Being irritated by someone else's kit is actually your problem, not theirs. If you must be with strictly accurate people to be happy, form a group with the rules you all want and go forth and prosper if you can. But don't pick on the poor fantasy folks or people whose skills or pockets only afford them a kit that is "close" just because they're doing something different than you. (This is why I think event coordinators should decide what they want and stick to it. If no one else wants that, the event will not happen. If others do, it will.) As for telling people something's wrong with their kit, that's a matter of perception. If you are telling an individual why their kit isn't correct and they don't care, you are essentially trying to impose your views on someone else, no matter how nicely you phrase it. Better to set the example and have them ask you about your kit than to try and correct them. If you absolutely must tell someone else about the correctness of their kit, complement the things they're doing right and don't mention the things that aren't right. Study after study has shown that people typically repeat what is complimented and justify what is criticized. They rarely stop doing it unless they hold you in high regard or you have the ability to coerce them. (Well...unless you're one of those extraordinarily empathetic people who can suggest things in such a way that it is appealing and in NO way threatening. If you're wondering if you're one of those people, you're probably not. It's an art.) If, after complimenting them they ask you what you think about things that aren't right, you have probably been put in the "high regard" category and you can (pleasantly) explain how they could improve.

I had a feeling...I may copy it and gussy it up even more. (When is the last time you had a hug? Does my cat count?) Ahem. I had an easier quote before, but I feel cranky now. This long quote looks easy, but Google won't help you a whit. But I'll give you a hint right off the bat, even though it won't help...much - this was released in 1967. "Ok, all right, I'm sorry I ran away. You can take me back to Washington." "Those are not my orders." "Oh, really? You mean I'm free?" "My orders are to kill you." "What?!" *Gun clicks...repeatedly...on an empty magazine.* "Valentine... Valentine! You got any Magnum .44s" "There's some on the boat." "Too late for that. I promised Helen I wouldn't work late. Give me your gun!"

What if recently posted to subforums went to the top of the list the way posts do? You could also have the topics roll over if you like, but that would be a better indication of what was active.

This is why I think it would be great to visit as a spectator. You'd get to see it as it seems, not as it goes on behind the scenes. Once you're inside the re-enactor world, I've found that you have to constantly be on guard against the types I mentioned. But this usually only happens once the tourists have gone home. Personally, as anyone who has seen me do my presentation will vouch, I prefer the explanation style over the living history style. Folks have been trying to get me do a mock operation for years and I am still not comfortable with it. I know deep in my heart that any attempts I would make to be accurate in portrayal would be wrong in many ways, so I prefer not to do it. This probably stems in part from the belief I mentioned that I can't see how we can get it more 50% right. However, I really admire those who do it and would gladly visit as a spectator to admire their art.

Well, of course there are legal points to consider... Still, like M.A. d'Dogge said, if you want to be one of the elite, being able to play at a hard-core re-enactment event would be a nice feather in your cap. I see nothing wrong with that (again, as long as the major modern legalities are observed.) I wonder just how much firing of weapons there really was in the streets during period? I have said before (and will probably say again) if you're 50% accurate to the real thing, you're probably in the elite. As much as we read, we will never really know what it was like until someone invents a way to travel through time. A written account is always slanted by the opinion and attitude of the writer. And some writers are influential and impact and inform the style of other writers, so you can't even be 100% certain when you find a few people in consensus. (As a would-be medico, I can show you references that contradict each other all over the place. So, like the bible, whatever mostly reasonable thing you want to believe about period medicine, I can probably find a reference to support you. Leeches? Just found a new reference that contradicts several others. Cauterizing? Some did so willingly, some hesitantly, some abhorred it. There's almost no such thing as consensus in the details.) Personally, I wouldn't even want to go to an elite event as a re-enactor. While such a thing would be dazzling to behold as a spectator, it would also probably be replete with overly-talky know-it-alls and stuffy self-rightous prigs and intentionally demeaning jerks. A little of that goes a long way.

While it is true that a very strict period event will (in fact, must) turn off some re-enactors, it is still their right to do so. (I'll bet half the re-enactors out there are women. They don't really fit in much of the pirating world very well.) So the organizers will probably have a party to which few re-enactors can come, but if that's what they want, it is their party, so that's what they should have. (I most likely wouldn't go to such an event on general principles, but that's just me.) I think by definition a strictly period event would have a small (hard) core group of re-enactors. In some ways it would be a dazzling thing to behold - as a spectator.

Bingo. If you don't like what an event does or doesn't allow, don't go to the event. Sterling is dead on - the organizers are the ones doing all the hard work and they are actually paying a lot of the freight (often more than most re-enactors know). So if you can't fit in for whatever reason, either find a way to fit in or find another event. Bingo again. We're all learning and if you can't (or, more likely, won't) hear the criticism, you're shutting off a major source of really excellent growth and learning possibilities. Beautiful. This is the one thing that bothers me about the strict purists. I think they do far more damage to the expansion of the hobby than any person wearing polyester will ever do. There's a nice way to tell folks they can improve and help them to do so and then there is the method of looking down your nose because you have accumulated knowledge that someone else hasn't. The second approach is immature and harmful. Eh? Not sure I understand why we are being asked this (and I doubt Jessi will even see it). I think a lot of misunderstanding comes from personality type differences. Approximately 3/4 of the world are Sensors and they accept most things at face value. 1/4 are iNtuitives and always search for the meaning underlying things. (And there is often such meaning.) Jessi and I both happen to be iNtuitives.

Well, that is a good point. Any event promoter worth their salt should want to get word about the event out through as many avenues, particularly focused avenues like this forum, as possible. Still, if there are only 3-5 posts after that has been done I think a whole forum is a bit much (and I mean POSTS, not THREADS - a POST is someone commenting like I am now where a THREAD is a topic like "To confuse everybody.") Too many unused subforums causes the Events forum to be unnecessarily complex. Of course, it will be better if the forums roll over each month, although I wouldn't want to be the one in charge of that. (When do you roll it over? Sometimes the best discussions take place in the month following an event.)

Duchess, that has to be your post-apocalyptic guitar movie, Six String Samurai. (Did you make that poll up on your FB or did you find it somewhere. It gave me an idea...) Ok, as to the articles, they are posted on this page of the thread, but I'll re-post them here. 1. As long as the game is active, new quotes can only be posted by the person guessing the previously posted quote correctly. 2. If no one guesses a quote within one week of its posting, the previous quote is forfeited and a new quote can be posted by the first person to notice this. 3. If no one can guess a quote within 48 hours of posting, the quote poster must give a hint or forfeit their turn. 4. If someone guesses a quote, the quote poster must respond within 48 hours of forfeit their turn. 5. No one can exclude Duchess from guessing, not even Mission. The problem with this thread is that if no one can guess your quote and you don't give us hints, the thread disappears, sometimes for months at a time. (Look at the dates.) So we made up some guidelines. (I wish I could sticky them inside the thread, but that doesn't work. Yet.)

Ok, now it's screwed up the Vendors Links list. Please fix this.

Rather than delay adding you to the list, I put you in the clothing section since that seems to be your focus. If you want me to change it, please let me know and I will do so. :)

Ok, this is a hodge-podge thread I made mostly from one and two post threads with interesting links in them. It's a real scattering of info via links. I did this because there were some really cool links scattered around the Twill forum and it seemed to make sense to me to gather them all in one place for easier reference. (Note that I only checked some of the links, so if they don't work...well, sorry about that.) Feel free to post some of your favorite historical and period links in here to help build this mini-database. Here are some of mine (mostly medical, natch ): Pharmacoepia of London Apothecaries' Symbols Commonly Found in Medical Recipes Latin Dictionary Alex Peck Medical and Surgical Antiques Will Styles' Medical Library Pirates & Privateers - The History of Maritime Piracy

Just a heads up...I moved a bunch of threads from this forum to The Armory forums after talking with Stynky last night. My reason is to make it easier to search for blackpowder and edged weapon info by putting all the info into the correct forum and also make this forum easier to search by reducing the number of threads contained within it. Most of them were quite old, so few will probably even notice the difference.

Another interesting find in the bowels of the forum. I believe I saw a question about period art...

I was digging around in the archives when I found this. It's neat.

Don't know if you've gotten to this yet, but I went in and edited the above referenced thread and it is still not working. I played around with it to see what would happen and it's pretty conclusive IMO. The thread allows me to have 53 active links (if I counted them correctly). For the heckuvit I removed a working link from the list. When I saved that change, the first previous-to-removal non-working link in the post turned active. So it appears to be limiting the number of links to the number I counted - again, if I counted them correctly. I suspect I would find this to be the case with other posts, but I don't want to try and find out - I may trash them which seems counterproductive. I also noticed that the auto-link icon didn't work for me like it usually does when I added a new link into the problem thread this morning.

Hey Paul! When you upgraded the system, I think the default allowance for number of links in a post got changed! Some of the index threads are not working properly - they only allow so many links before they just spew all the hard-wrought links out in a sort of alphabet puke. Please, please, please fix this! Love, Mission (who actually hates you too)

Ok, I updated this, but the stupid frigging software seems to be limiting the number of links it will allow. I shall whine and bitch about this to Stynky who will probably ignore me for awhile. However, I believe the crucial links are at the top of this thread. So you'll find much of what you need there. I also added a lot of stuff to the Logistics section about driving and whatnot that is not as time sensitive as the stuff at the top. Eventually I hope to get the 2008 info into it's own section, but since the system is botching my links up after a certain point, it's not worth the trouble just now. Note: most of this is not required reading, it's just FYI. But the top section is highly recommended. :)

I wouldn't even label it as being liberal. This has been going on for decades under both parties leadership. That's why I like the Franklin quote so well. "They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security." -Benjamin Franklin A lot of very well-meaning people want to protect us into meek oblivion. (Not to mention a lot of lawyers.)

Of all this places this topic might go, Twill is probably at least half way down the list. I'm gonna' send it to Pop since they keep sending topics here.

Of all this places this topic might go, Twill is probably at least half way down the list. I'm gonna' send it to Pop since they keep sending topics here.

Those syringes always make one half of the audience wince, and the other half snicker. That makes it a goodprop to have [grins]. Ah, yes. Lest we forget the surgeon's treatment for the gentlemen - a mercury injection tool: