Mission

Not to get OT, but PiP doesn't really have minimum garb standards. While it would be nice to have hand stitching for period accuracy, no one there is likely to scold you for having machine stitching. You might want to try hand stitching your next garment and make it looser if you're going for the Anne/Mary look. Sterling's point (as I understand it) is that the clothing shown in the picture is tight to emphasize their femininity which is the exact opposite of what Anne and Mary would have wanted to do. But PiP is quite accepting of all efforts. Pirates run the gamut from Captain Jack Sparrow to Captain Jack Rackham. For more photos than you could possibly view in one sitting of the variety of garb folks at PiP '08 wear, see this thread.

Fort Edward Taylor. As for the name nitpickiness...pah. We have a looooong way to go for the term 'PiP' to become public domain. Even if we all posted separate videos on YouTube using that title, we wouldn't even be close to having to worry about pd issues. At least that's this little MBA's view of this. (We did a case study of a failed public domain trial and this sort of behavior is no where near what it takes.) Anyone who did that would have to be crazy anyhow. The name's not that valuable and they should be happy for all the viral marketing they can get at this point. Wait until you get a letter from someone's lawyer before you even think about worrying about changing the name. (I can't see the video. Did you take it down?)

Yep. That about says it all.

Yeah...some of the most interesting stuff happens on Sunday night. For example, that's usually the night Stynky gets (but not necessarily purchases) mead. I would never dream of missing Sunday night...well, what I can remember of Sunday nights on Monday morning. :angry:

Good point. Regular seamen and men pressed into piratical service occasionally kept journals, so we know some of them could write (and, logically, read.) Probably not the majority of them, though. I could see an argument suggesting that most seamen who couldn't read wouldn't even be totally aware that they needed vision correction. (Except the surgeon, the navigator (both of whom could most likely read) and the sailmakers. Maybe the carpenter.)

Going by this quote: "The seventeenth century saw a return to the single eye-glass, mostly for the rich who did not wish to be associated with double ones now that they had become available to all.” (Bennion, p. 237) and this one: "With the invention of the printing press in 1476 more and more people wished to read, resulting in large scale production for the spectacle-maker. Prices fell and spectacles were sold by pedlars; glasses were available to almost all. The first known spectacle-maker was one in Nuremberg in 1478 and by 1567 that city had entirely regularised the craft." (Bennion, p. 235) Extrapolating from the late 15th century forward, my guess is that they were produced in larger quantities during period and available from street peddlers in various standard strengths - kind of like reading glasses are today at K-Mart. The street peddler sold primarily to the common people as I understand it.

Actually, if you read those last few quotes, eyeglasses in one form or another were available to one and all. However, I can see the argument for wearing your regular glasses if that's what it takes for you to function, especially if you can't wear contacts. Dead Eye with the Bone Island Buccaneers informed me that his vision is so bad without glasses that they won't issue him a driver's license. Looking period is important, but you there's no sense in being a damned fool about it.

Oh no... :angry: Oh no!

I found this in Elizabeth Bennion's, Antique Medical Instruments: This suggests that eyeglasses with some way to attach them to the wearer's head existed in 1700. (Quick, someone over there go check the British Optical Ass'n Library for verification.) I do wish we knew the dates of each of those. Also, according to Bennion, eye glasses and pince nez glasses were very popular and common and could be fairly cheaply purchased. "In the late fifteenth century they [glasses] were occasionally held on by an extension over the forehead. Early frames were made of brass or iron and then of horn, bone, gold, silver and even of leather. The first lenses were only for long-sightedness and were ground from berillus or beryl, a smoke coloured glass. From beryl came the French bericle and later besicles, meaning spectacles. The word 'lenses' comes from the Italian word for lentils. Eye-glasses, being precious, required cases, and these were often the most intricate and beautiful works of art, made of wood, metal, or ivory or, for the hoi polloi, leather, horn or parchment. Sometimes, since spectacles were only __ __ used for reading, the case was contrived in the cover of a book. With the invention of the printing press in 1476 more and more people wished to read, resulting in large scale production for the spectacle-maker. Prices fell and spectacles were sold by pedlars; glasses were available to almost all. The first known spectacle-maker was one in Nuremberg in 1478 and by 1567 that city had entirely regularised the craft. The sixteenth-century saw the introduction of concave lenses for the short-sighted, and the innovation of oval lenses meant that one might look over them for distance vision. Frames were becoming slightly more flexible; some were strapped round the head with leather, others had cord around each ear, and others still were attached to a hat. A book entitled A Briefe Treatise touching the Preservation of the Eisight, published in 1586, mentions the usefulness of tinted glasses, and by 1591 lenses of amber, soaked in linseed oil, were used as protection against the sun." (Bennion, p. 233-5) "The seventeenth century saw a return to the single eye-glass, mostly for the rich who did not wish to be associated with double ones now that they had become available to all." (Bennion, p. 237) "The form of mid-seventeenth-century spectacles is not clear as the books of the London Spectacle Makers' Company were burned in the Great Fire, but by the end of the century we read of black frames for sale at 5d the pair and ordinary __ white ones for 7d. Samuel Pepys, whose bad eyesight regrettably caused him eventually to stop writing his diary, nevertheless in 1666, 'did this evening buy me a pair of green spectacles to see whether they will help my eyes or no.'" (Bennion, p. 237-8)

The syringe is real. I'm certain I've posted this charming thing before: It's a syringe for injecting things like mercury into the male member. I have one in my kit, but it has a straight "needle." Kinda' makes you squirm, doesn't it? Iodine? I've never read that anywhere. I have read about the use of Guiac. “Guiac was made from the bark of a tree that was first introduced into Spain in the year 1508 from the West Indian island of Hispaniola. In its original habitat, the bark of the guiac was used by the natives for treating their own cases of syphilis –it caused violent seating, they found, and was sometimes effective. By the middle of the seventeenth century the use of guiac had become so fashionable in Europe that mercury, temporarily, went out of favour with the medical profession. (In 1685 the governors of London’s St. Thomas’s Hospital resolved that ‘the ancient guiacum diet drink and no other is to be given to patients with the foule disease, or French pox, unless the physicians order other…’) Then, as the seventeenth century ended, mercury entirely regained its popularity with the medical profession, and was not to lose its prime importance until long after the eighteenth century was over. The crude students’ jest- ‘A moment with Venus may mean a lifetime with Mercury’- has only quite recently lost its significance.” (I forgot to copy the credit for this one and there are now dozens of references in my notes so I'm not exactly sure where I got this. Sorry about that.) From Woodes Rogers: “[1709, the city of Guiaquil] The River is large, receives several others, has many Villages and Farm Houses on its Banks, with abundance of Mangroves and Sarsaparilla, which impregnates its Water, and makes it good against the French Pox but in the Time of Floods it is unwholesome, because of the poisonous Roots and Plants wash’d down from the Mountains.” (Rogers, A Cruizing Voyage Round the World, p. 102) For the most part, I agree with what Sjovern said. Ironically, nature did the same thing as Mercury; Syphilis has three stages and in going from stage 1 to 2 there is a period of remission. This period is often what the Mercury was credited with 'curing'. Of course, no one seems to be willing to commit to whether it did any good or not since the cure was as bad as the disease. One further fun, footnoted thought on Mercury and VD: "Noses were not the only facial casualties of syphilis: teeth would also decay as the disease progressed, especially if treatment was sought in the form of mercury pills – contributing to the ‘equation of loose teeth with loose morals’.” (Emily Cockayne, Hubbub: Filth, Noise, and Stench in England, 1600-1770, p. 30-1)

This is probably a description of a separate box. John Woodall refers to a "Plaster Box" in the surgions mate: “Of the Plaster Box and what belongeth thereto and first of the Emplasters. The Plaster boxe ought to containe at the least three kindes of several Emplasters as namely, Emplast. – Stipticum Paracelsi, Diachalcitheus. De lapide calaminare. for want of Diacalsithios Emplast. De minio may serve. The uses of the Instruments due to the Plaster box follow next and are these. Sizers. Forceps. Spatulae. Probes. Stitching needles and quill. Lancet. Burras pipe. Levatory. Vuula spoone. There belongeth to the Surgeons Mate a carefull and especiall respect to be had concerning Sizers, namely, that hee have at least two paire of good sizers for to cut haire, that they be well ground, an kept cleane; as also in his Plaster box one paire, and that they be at all time kept __ well. The manner of using them were lost labour to bee taught any Surgeons Mate, for if he be therein unskilfull he is unworthy of his place. Wherefore I onely recite them for remembrance sake, and likewise for order, having spoken somewhat of the several uses of each one of the former recited instruments.” (Woodall, p. 25-6) My edition of Woodall has an intro by the excellent John Kirkup, which talks a little about this: "Even the smallest ship must have carried a massive wooden iron-bound chest to contain Woodall’s long list of items. Presumably the salvatory of six to eight ointments, the plaster box with its basic first-aid kit and the barber’s case were kept apart. The latter was the mate’s responsibility who, in addition to equipment for trimming and shaving, was provided with an ear-picker, paring knives for corn cutting and some dental implements. It is unlikely the chest would accommodate medical, pharmaceutical and nursing paraphernalia such as cupping glasses, blood porringers, dishes, pots, funnels, mortars, pestells and two sets of scales, one to weigh ounces and one grains; nor splints, bandages, lanterns, tinder-boxes, ink, quills and the brass pail in the close-stool!” (Kirkup/Woodall, p. xvii) James Yonge also talks about trying to get his plaster box box in his Diary: “[After capture by the Dutch, Yonge tried to retrieve some of his supplies.] I told Mr. Shepherd {who was helping Yonge] they had some of my books and my plaster box. The book, he told me, were taken away by the Lords, being journals and manuscripts, the box he would fetch me. My box was a plain thing and had but 3 silver instruments. He brought me a fine new Nisle skin [crocodile-skin] box, that he took from the chyrurgeon of the Swiftsure who died in the prison. I innocently said it was not mine, then he fetched the other, which I took, kissing his hand, bid him farewell. He often admired my honesty in refusing the better box, protesting he thought it had been mine.” (Yonge, p 99-100) Note that the replacement box is covered in crocodile skin. I have not yet quite figured out what a plaster box might look like or be made of. (You would think it would be made of plaster, but my knowledge in this area is limited and I hesitate to state that.)

Hoist High, the Jolly Rabbit!

Happy birthday to Rabbitz, whom I have never met or read, but who has a great name. "Ahoy, beware the fierce pirate Captain Rabbitz!" You can just imagine his flag and the singing that must go on when his crew of skellies raise said flag... "Hoist HIGH the jolly rabbit! (etc.) *" Yep. And he's from Oz, where I have been, so that makes him doubly cool. Somehow. * To the tune "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot", C flat scale.

Thanks for the freakfest, Mission...I'm not gonna sleep till PiP! I still say the spider skelly is kinda cute though. You can buy those. All the legs are jointed and the head can be fully posed. The little ones (about 6" long) are $10 and the big ones (about 12" or so) are about $25. In fact, I used the head from one of them to make the undead monkey because the head with the miniature skeleton the rest of the monk was based on was too small.

Dutch (bcddutchman) knows how to make one pretty cheaply. You might want to pm him to find out how to do it.

Say, how do you go about getting a job as a reverend? At least you would think there would be a lot of call for that sort of job these days. (Not that I could be a reverend, mind you.)

Note the important role surgical equipment plays in this.

[They Might Be Giants] Evil, evil is her one and only name Evil, in her mind there is no other game! When your name is Evil, that is good or so you think, but you're so very wrong. It's evil! But being wrong is right, so then you're good again, which is the evilest thing of all... Do you find her sudden ways, invite you? Does she excite you? If her contradictions should attract you, should she distract you? Heaven help you then... You're finished, it's the end... There'll be no retrieval... From the evil... The evil, She will do. She's evil, She's Doctress Evil. Her name is Evillllllllllll! [/They Might Be Giants]

Happy Year and three months (and a day) birthday to Skull Wench! Whoever you are! We expect a fully quarterly report. Waiting... Waiting... Waiting... Here's a skull wench picture according to Google: (Does it fit? But of corset it does!)

Hey, yeah! How did we miss that one?! I remember seeing Red Handed Jill (who is a different poster), but not Red-Handed Jill! Hope Jack did right by you, Jill! (Even if we didn't.) Jack and Jill. Ha ha. I still get a kick out of that... Edit: Oops! I saw April 24th on her profile and tranmogrified into March 24th. Happy early Birthday, then! Hope Jack DOES right by you. Maybe now you'll have the longest-running HB thread ever. (Except for Skull Wench, whose thread I plan to bring up every three months.) It's still Jack and Jill. Hee hee hee...

Hard tack 3 for $5? Do you give volume discounts? I want to re-do the concrete on my driveway and I think a tan tiled effect might be nice... Do you carry GAoP period shoe buckles, Jim?

If you have to start somewhere, this event is one of the best to start with! I was completely green when I went two years ago as well. Just do your best with the kit. You'll find lots of helpful people and ideas around here, particularly in the Captain Twill and The Thieves Market forums. The only downfall is that you may be completely spoiled by attending this event first.

I wonder what will happen when the sugar bottles warm up? (I'll bet we're going to have ants all over the ordinary!)

Interesting point. However, I believe you mean buccaneer period. Privateers continued to operate on and off all during the GAoP.

Say, how did my house get involved in your licit affair? Speaking of my house, I am currently having a stained glass window that I designed (about 15 years ago) made for the dining room. The dining room has a Key West theme. Once the stained glass window is in, I will post pics of the completed dining room. Then you can post musings about having a romantic dinner in Patrick's comic before romping around in the bathroom...