How can you call yourself a real Pirate re-enactor?

[Mission]

I don't think you'd have much use for any of the pirate magazines with all the period doc reading you've done, Ed. It's not that they're all bad, it's just that the best I've seen them do is hit the high points of a highly nuanced topic while managing to avoid printing legend and lore as fact or sensationalist stuff like responses to these questions.

So even in a good mag, you really don't come away with much more than what you could read in any of the decently-researched modern books on piracy. At least that's been my (admittedly limited) experience with them.

Oh, and no less than David Lee Roth has reenacted a cannibal. Sort of.

"Gimme a glazed donut a bottle of anything. To go!"

[William Brand]

Oh, and no less than David Lee Roth has reenacted a cannibal. Sort of.

"Gimme a glazed donut a bottle of anything. To go!"

You never cease to amaze me with your obscure pop cross-culture references.

[Mission]

It's what I do.

I would actually like to comprehend how my mind is wired because it seems to be just ever so slightly different than a lot of other people's. In a weird way.

[Mission]

Oh, crud. Now I'm a ship. I have to go back and find those instructions Stynky gave me to re-enable my admin abilities so I can reset my post count to skull again...

[peglegstrick]

And not every Pirate was missing a eye, a arm or a leg...............then again...........

[oderlesseye]

Funny you are writing this and eye just saw this post... I have been in the process of writing an article concerning reenactment as well.. For Mutiny Magazine.. A snap shot of Toshiba Tall Ships and a Reenactment group of Brits.

"

Looks like all the salts here have already answered up so No need to repeat them from my own hand.

Edited September 26, 2012 by oderlesseye

[Ransom]

Ya know, this guy has been around for a long time, and really, we should be used to him fishing for article information. Let him do the research instead of letting all of you do it for him. Especially when his questions have no real relevance to the reinacting community or how we play.

Oh, and I like Foxe's second set of anwers. Well done, suh.

[On Stranger Tides]

LOL

[Matty Bottles]

[tangent]

I have crohn's disease. When it wasn't well managed, I experienced:

tiredness

loss of appetite

irritability

inability to gain weight

muscle weakness or pseudoparalysis

joint and muscle aches and stiffness

rashes, particularly on your legs; generally looking like tiny red blisters and eventually large purple blotches (in my case, as a side effect of inappropriate medication)

bleeding gums which turn blue-ish purple and feel spongy but I have had ulcers in my mouth

bulging eye balls

corkscrew hair (only in non-infantile scurvy), particularly noticeable on your arms and legs

loosened teeth which will eventually fall out in the advanced stages of scurvy

fever

swollen legs, particularly swelling over the long bones of your body (again, from inappropriate medication)

diarrhea

vomiting

lethargy

scar tissue will break down and you’ll begin bleeding again from these formerly healed areas

slow wound healing

anemia

depression

unusual paleness

bleeding under the skin and from hair follicles

eventual death due to cardiac failure

I never realized how authentic I was! From herein I shall refer to my meds as my 'limes.'

[/tangent]

[William Brand]

I never realized how authentic I was! From herein I shall refer to my meds as my 'limes.'

I'm sorry about the crohn's disease, but experiencing the same symptoms would give you an empathetic edge when describing scurvy at events. How many of the symptoms had you experienced prior to diagnosis?

[Matty Bottles]

I'm sorry about the crohn's disease, but experiencing the same symptoms would give you an empathetic edge when describing scurvy at events. How many of the symptoms had you experienced prior to diagnosis?

Many of them:

tiredness

loss of appetite

irritability

inability to gain weight

muscle weakness or pseudoparalysis

joint and muscle aches and stiffness

corkscrew hair (only in non-infantile scurvy), particularly noticeable on your arms and legs

fever

diarrhea

vomiting

lethargy

scar tissue will break down and you’ll begin bleeding again from these formerly healed areas

slow wound healing

anemia

depression

unusual paleness

bleeding under the skin and from hair follicles

These are atypical symptoms, for the most part. It was sort of a perfect storm of bad health management. I had a fairly minor outpatient surgery to repair an abcess (for which my uninsured self declined the $500 shots of local anethetic - that's another interesting experience that lends itself to 18th century medicine interpretation) which never healed, because the abcess was caused by the crohn's and the crohn's was untreated and undiagnosed. It would start to heal, and then it would open up again. Since it didn't heal properly, the surgeon kept me on a course of antibiotics for far longer than is recommended, killing off most of the flora in my gut except for C. Diff - which produces toxins. Meanwhile, the undiagnosed crohn's ulcerated my intestines, interfering with my ability to absorb nutrients. After a few weeks, whatever food I did eat was vomited up because of the C.Diff poisoning. All told, I lost about 70 pounds over six months. It was pretty unpleasant, but things are much better controlled today. I know you were bringing up a ridiculous canard from years past to illustrate the banality of the original three questions, but it has made me well aware of how good I have it, and I like to reenact to remind myself how lucky I am to live in the 21st century, along with shooting awesome guns and fighting with swords and rocking my totally bitching 17th century gear.

[Mission]

Yeah...

Symptoms of living in the 17th century with Type 1 diabetes:

• Agonizing Death
  

I think I'll stick with pretending to be a pirate surgeon and not wishing I had actually lived then.

[Matty Bottles]

Yeah...

Symptoms of living in the 17th century with Type 1 diabetes:

• Agonizing Death
  

I think I'll stick with pretending to be a pirate surgeon and not wishing I had actually lived then.

I know, right?!? It all comes down to this: if you want to reenact, then it seems to me you will try to be as historically accurate as you can be within reason. It's reasonable to wear evidence-backed clothing, wield evidence-backed weapons, don evidence-based hats and sport evidence-based footwear particularly when the evidence is not too hard to find*. It isn't reasonable to subject oneself to the horrors - yes, truly the horrors - of 17th and 18th century life.

*To tell the truth, I've barely done a lick of research. I just read the research that Foxe, GoF, and the fellas in the Pirate Brethren did. Honestly, how hard is that?

Edited October 3, 2012 by Matty Bottles

[Mission]

*To tell the truth, I've barely done a lick of research. I just read the research that Foxe, GoF, and the fellas in the Pirate Brethren did. Honestly, how hard is that?

If it weren't for Michael Bagley, I would probably be dressing like this:

(Photo copyright Red-handed Jill via Mission's crappy phone. Not for use by people who won't share their photos.)

Yo ho! Ha hah ha hah ha...

[Ransom]

I don't know, Mission, I think you look kinda cute in that picture. And we all start out looking a bit funny, until we get our persona's act together. It's part of the process, regardless of how we play.

[Mission]

I never said it was bad - it's just not what I wanted to represent.

It was all the cast-off clothing that Jill could assemble for me when I went to my very first event with their group back in 2007. I recall those boots being quite comfortable.

(See that forelock of hair peeking out? It is my constant companion.)

[Ransom]

Jill is a sweatheart. I must admit, though, because I am so used to seeing it on you (or being handed around) it's just not "you" without your hat. And yes, I have noticed the ever-present forelock.

[Fox]

Somewhere, in the very bowels of the internet, exists a photograph of me wearing bucket boots.

[Captain Jim]

Somewhere, in the very bowels of the internet, exists a photograph of me wearing bucket boots.

SSSSHHH! Stop or everyone will start looking! Then they'l find mine!

In all seriousness, I still "Bucket it" on Halloween, just for fun.

[Mission]

Somewhere, in the very bowels of the internet, exists a photograph of me wearing bucket boots.

Oh, you MUST post a link now that you've 'fessed up.

I like bucket boots. They're cool looking. They're wrong, but they're cool looking. I'd like 'em even better with big ol' shiny skulls-n-bones emblems on them. (I would never wear them normally because it's not what I'm going for, but I like 'em. Yep.)

[Fox]

Would if I could old boy, but I have no idea of its location - it was a long time ago...