HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: whheydt@pbhya.PacBell.COM (Wilson Heydt)
Subject: Re: Period calendar; Nonfighter kings; Drachenwald ideas
Organization: Pacific * Bell, San Ramon, CA
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 21:15:28 GMT

Dennis O'Connor writes:
>I don't think you'd get fighters spontaneously banding together.
>More likely respected Knights, Masters, and Baron(ess)s would decide
>who they would support, and bring their Squires and followers with
>them to their side. If this were not they way most fighters chose
>who to support, it would still probably be how most war-trained
>units decided. 

[Text left in for context only.]

>And units that train together for war are usually
>more effective man-for-man than random collections of fighters.

Well.....  Yes and no....   

I can think of two reasons why this generalization can fail.  On the
one hand, in any sort of 'real life', you're going to wind up killing
off so many of your troops that even if the individuals are superb,
there aren't enough of them to be effective.

More importantly--from the SCA standpoint--it kind of depends on how
battles are run....  I spend a fair amount of time watch
wars--particularly Inter-Kingdom Wars (West-An Tir and West-Caid,
specifically)--and one factor stands out that seems to go unnoticed by
a lot of folks.  While what you say is quite true of many scenarios,
it fails markedly during ressurection battles.  It appears (to this
spectator at least) that pick-up units (formed at the Res. point) from
otherwise unit-trained individuals perform *worse* than comparable
units formed from random decent fighters who don't normally fight
together.  I *think* this is because an uncoordinated unit depends on
individual prowess, where a unit used to working together is 'greater
than the sum of it's parts'.

If all units were trained the same way, this effect might not show up,
but in the current SCA 'climate' I find it quite noticible on the
field.

>Of coure, a side affect of this interneccine warfare would be
>a general rise, I think, in war-making capability. A kingdom
>that chose it's monarchs by war would probably be more potent
>when engaged in inter-kingdom war than one that did not.

This is quite likely true--though what it might actually produce is
Kings who are competent generals even more than it produces good
units.

	--Hal

        Hal Ravn, West Kingdom
        Wilson H. Heydt, Jr.,  Albany, CA 94706,  510/524-8321 (home)

Nothing in this missive constitutes an act or opinion of the Lord High
Constable of the Kingdom of the West unless otherwise explicitly stated.
-- 
Hal Heydt                    |    
Analyst, Pacific*Bell        |            You!
510-823-5447                 |    Out of the Gene Pool!
whheydt@pbhya.PacBell.COM    |
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: habura@vccnw04.its.rpi.edu (Andrea Marie Habura)
Subject: Re: Period Calendar Wanted
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 13:55:17 GMT

Sunrises throughout the year:

I am dead certain that the line on a sundial will *not* fall on a single
line at sunrise throughout the year. 

Why? Because the earliest "sundials" (like Stonehenge, the Serpent Mound here
in the US, etc, etc.) were made not to tell time of day, but time of year. 
Strategically placed holes/slits etc. were positioned so that the light from
the sun at sunrise would fall in an alcove/bisect a spiral carved in rock/
be contaoined completely within a curve/or whatever. This would simply be
impossible if the sunrise location did not move.

Alison MacDermot
*Ex Ungue Leonem*
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Knitting 
From: bloodthorn@sloth.equinox.gen.nz (Jennifer Geard)
Date: Thu, 07 Jan 93 23:11:25 GMT
Distribution: world
Organization: Lethargy Inc.


Dorothea wrote about nalebinding:
  > I came in on the middle of this discussion so I can't tell whether "the 
  > book that discusses nalebinding" is Margrethe Hald's _Ancient Danish 
  > Textiles..._ or not.  If that *is* the book you've been talking about, 
  > well, yes, it gives you diagrams (in up to three colors) about every form 
  > of nalebinding Hald could find out about; but it doesn't precisely tell 
  > you how to do it. 

You mail reached me before this posting:  the book we were talking about was 
_Cloth and Clothing in Medieval Europe_ (Eds. N. B. Harte and K. G. Ponting, 
London:  Heinemann, 1983) which includes an article on "The Diffusion of 
Knitting in Medieval Europe" commencing with a discussion of the difficulties 
of telling knitted artifacts from those made by nalebinding.  There's a 
diagram showing the interlacing pattern, and it's from this that I made my 
woolly demi-finger-gauntlet.  Neat technique and I'd like to know more, but I 
can't find a copy of _Ancient Danish Textiles..._.

  > Maybe what we need is somebody with some time and energy to spare 
  > (students on break?  Empty-nesters?  Little old grannies?) to sit down 
  > with Hald's diagrams and see what can be worked out.  

Yes please!  Hmmm... I could probably do it if I could lay hands on the 
diagrams, but explanations via the written word are going to get tricky.  
Snail-mail will probably have to be part of the project.

Pagan
________________________________________________________________________
Jennifer Geard                         bloodthorn@sloth.equinox.gen.nz
Christchurch, New Zealand
From: bq434@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Michael A. Chance)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Announcement of new journal
Date: 6 Jan 1993 18:28:01 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Reply-To: mcnelis@U.WASHINGTON.EDU
NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu


Originally posted on ANSAXNET:

Announcing _Aestel_, a new journal in medieval and renaissance studies

Several of the graduate students in English at the University of
Washington have formed _Aestel_ for the purpose of publishing
varied papers on current medieval and renaissance topics, and doing
so in a timely manner (preferably, less than a year from conference
to covers). Reviews--of books which have not yet seen their first
birthday--will also be included.

The contents of the first issue, to be published in April 1993
(thereafter annually), include the following as of this writing:

A.S.G. Edwards, "Editing and the Teaching of Alliterative Poetry"
(Kalamazoo '92)
Hoyt Duggan, "A New Critical-Diplomatic Edition of _Piers Plowman_ B
in Hypertext" (Kalamazoo '92)
Paul G. Remley, "An Electronic Reading Text of Chaucer's _Canterbury
Tales_" (Kalamazoo '92)
T. A. Shippey and Gillian Overing, from a session entitled "Recent
Writing in Old English" (MLA '91)
Maud B. McInerney, "Opening the Oyster: Pearls in _Pearl_" (Medieval
Association of the Pacific '92)
Monica B. Potkay, "The New Dark Ages of Camille Paglia"
E. G. Stanley, review of Patrick Conner's _Anglo-Saxon Exeter_
(B&B, '93)
Christine Rose, review of Barry Windeatt's _Oxford Guide to _Troilus
and Criseyde_ (Oxford, '92)
Paul Pascal, review of David H. Wright's _The Vatican Vergil: A
Masterpiece of Late Antique Art_ (UC Press, '93)

The journal will be hardbound, with a cleat-sewn library binding,
 and we will ask $20/$25 for US individual/institutional orders.
As I mentioned, it is scheduled to mail in April, and we will print
enough copies to satisfy all orders received.
 
At the moment we are waiting for a permanent PO box, so an order
might best be directed to me:
James McNelis
3890 Whitman Ave. N. #306
Seattle, WA 98103
USA

We would also be happy to fill the order, then
send an invoice for payment afterwards.

If you would like further information, please send e-mail to
mcnelis@u.washington.edu.


 @          __|__              James McNelis
  \           |         /      Assistant Editor, MLQ
   ----O\O\O\O\O\O\O\O--\      Dept. of English, GN-30
    \    \ \ \ \ \ \ \/  \     University of Washington
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Seattle, WA 98195 (mcnelis@u.washington.edu)

-- 
Michael A. Chance          St. Louis, Missouri, USA    "At play in the fields
Work: mc3078@sw1sta.sbc.com                             of St. Vidicon"
Play: bq434@cleveland.freenet.edu
      mchance@nyx.cs.du.edu
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: ilaine@panix.com (Liz Stokes)
Subject: Re: Knitting 
Organization: Panix Public Access Internet & Unix, NYC
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 11:51:48 GMT

In article <726271111snx@sloth.equinox.gen.nz> bloodthorn@sloth.equinox.gen.nz (Jennifer Geard) writes:

>So, good gentle, do you know of a source for these techniques which is 
>available to someone living in far-off lands who prefers to read in English?  
>I could probably handle a couple of the Scandinavian languages, however 
>Finnish, in all its Finno-Ugric splendour, is not one of them. 

	A History of Hand Knitting by Richard Rutt, Bishop of Leicester
has diagrams for 2 flavors of the basic stitch - 1 that looks just like 
knitting and another which is like a needle lace stitch. on another page
he has a diagram of the structure of a nalbinding increase and decrease.
He says the decrease cannot be simulated by knitting so it can be a way to
tell which technique was used to make an item.
				-Ilaine



-- 
Liz Stokes         | 	Ilaine's E-Z Garb Workshop
Ilaine de Cameron  | 	We're going to try an experiment now. Instead of using
                   | 	a loom, we're going to wind all the yarn into balls
ilaine@panix.com   |    and adopt an infinite number of kittens...
From: perkins@MSUPA.PA.MSU.EDU
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Name
Date: 8 Jan 1993 06:48:18 GMT
Organization: MSU Dept. of Physics & Astronomy
Reply-To: perkins@MSUPA.PA.MSU.EDU
NNTP-Posting-Host: msupa.pa.msu.edu

In article <726401403.F00002@ocitor.fidonet>, ~ Aindries
[Longshot@f19.n291.z1.fidonet.org (Longshot)] writes:

>A node called Tim Of Angle coded to node Longshot,
> L>    Could some one please define "Rialto"?   Sorry, had to ask.
> TOA> Name of the "main drag" in Venice.
>[...]
>   O.K., thanks.   The only thing that I could find was "rial" which was 
>defined as "riches".
>   Off hand, why is the main drag in Venice called the Rialto?

It's from "Rivo Alto", Late Latin/Early Italian for Latin "Rivus Altus"
(back when "v" was pronounced as modern English "w", which should make it
clearer how the contraction came about).  "Rivus" == "brook or stream",
classically, but in Medieval Latin occasionally was used to describe a
brook or stream's banks.  "Altus" == "High", which when referring to bodies
of water meant "deep". So it meant "deep stream" or maybe "high stream-bank".
I haven't seen a reference which ventures to decide between the two, but
the stream in question is Venice's Grand Canal, which runs along the island
on which the Rialto lay, and which was spanned by the Rialto Bridge (and
still is, for that matter, though it hasn't been the same structure
continuously from the Middle Ages: the one there now dates only from the
1580s or so, I think).

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 Jeremy de Merstone       George J Perkins    perkins@msupa.pa.msu.edu
 North Woods, MidRealm    East Lansing, MI    perkins@msupa (Bitnet)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: blaxson@shade.UWaterloo.ca (Brian A.Laxson)
Subject: re: crown tourney
Reply-To: balaxson@systems.watstar.uwaterloo.ca
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 15:32:52 GMT




> even be a fighter), or just plain agreement that "Given the
> alternatives, wouldn't you want to resign..."  (Alternatively, an
> appropriate threat would cause the reigning ruler to name the
> contender his or her successor) We could easily throw in a fronde or
> two....this would result in interesting buy-offs, such as Kingly
> creation of titles to prevent civil wars.  
> 
> Tio dell'abaco


AAAAAAAAaaaacccckkk.....

I can just hear the Heralds cries:

Major Increase of Politics Throughout the Kingdom

Course if this was all friendly like it 'might' not be that bad....but it  
doth not well sit in this heart.

Brian Goodheart

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: schuldy@progress.COM (Mark Schuldenfrei)
Subject: Re: Sumptuary Laws
Organization: Progress Software Corp.
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 18:31:22 GMT

The Crown Prince of Meridies writes:
  Sorry to break this too you, but there are quite a few sumptuary laws in Meridies.

My word, laws, and not customs?  I don't doubt you, but I'm very surprised.

Would you be so kind as to post or email me the relevant sections of law?
It would be fun to see them.

	Tibor
--
Mark Schuldenfrei (schuldy@progress.com)
[I'm just showin' you my opinions: this ain't a gift]
From: Dave.Aronson@p11.f120.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Dave Aronson)
Sender: Uucp@blkcat.UUCP
From: dgreen@athena (David Greenebaum)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: buying awards
Date: 12 Jan 1993 22:49:57 GMT
Organization: /etc/organization
NNTP-Posting-Host: athena.berkeley.edu

Hello from Bjalfi!

Henry Best writes:
>    Bjalfi, I must apologize for the crack about the turnip truck. If 
>we ever meet, I would be very proud to teach you the secret SCA 
>handshake; but I now suspect you already know it.

Geez, folks, I've had about six people say nice things to me on the
Rialto, by emai, or in person in the past week.  I wish you'd cut it
out--my hats are starting to pinch.  <G>

---------------------  Bjalfi Thordharson/College of St. Katherine/Province of
 |\  | |\  |\  |// |       the Mists/Principality of the Mists/West Kingdom
 | > | |\\ | \ |/  |   David Greenebaum/University of California/Berkeley, CA
 |<  | | \ |   |   |   dgreen@athena.berkeley.edu, dgreen@garnet.berkeley.edu
 | > | |   |   |   |
 |/  | |   |   |   |   "I make mistakes, but I am on the side of good -- by
---------------------  accident and happenchance." -- the Golux
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Calling Tokyo...
From: bloodthorn@sloth.equinox.gen.nz (Jennifer Geard)
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 93 01:14:17 GMT
Distribution: world
Organization: Lethargy Inc.


Good Gentles, I seek contacts in the Far West.

My lord has been offered a month's work in Nagano, Japan, in March-April 
(just prior to the Rowany festival in Lochac, so he's turning into a 
jetsetter).  Is there anyone from the Tokyo groups (Nihoyama and Havebjorn?) 
who could tell whether there are events scheduled for this time, and maybe 
even take a friendly interest in an affable Viking fighter/armorer/Seneschal 
who'll be a-hundred-or-so miles down the train tracks?  

Pagan le Chaunster
"So you're going a-viking, huh?  I guess it's not really appropriate for me 
to tell you to pack clean underwear and be careful..."  ]-)
________________________________________________________________________
Jennifer Geard                         bloodthorn@sloth.equinox.gen.nz
Christchurch, New Zealand
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: DEW@ECLX.PSU.EDU (Baron Dur al-Jabar)
Subject: Re: Atmosphere vs Living history
Organization: Orluk Oasis
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 05 Jan 93 23:08:41 GMT
X-News-Reader: VMS NEWS 1.24

In <199301050037.AA08247@meryl.csd.uu.se> vader@meryl.csd.uu.se writes:

#> Greetings from William de Corbie!
#> 
#> Thus, I agree that authenticity in individuals is best acheived
#> by assistance and encouragement, not rules. But I do believe that
#> atmosphere via research and recreation is one of the chief goals
#> of the Society, together with learning and fun. Why should it not
#> be? Is there anything wrong with atmosphere?
#> 
#> William

The problem with atmosphere is when it gets so thin that it no longer 
sustains life...or when it is so thick (as fog) that you run aground on the 
shoals of (real) life.

Dur

Dale E. Walter     |Dur of Hidden Mountain          
dew@ecl.psu.edu    |Orluk Oasis on the War Road (of Aethelmarc)

"I'm the Baron!  Ya gotta loath me!"
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Name
Date: Mon, 04 Jan 1993 00:03:49

lo'
   Could some one please define "Rialto"?   Sorry, had to ask.

                                              ~ Aindries


... "The soul's Rialto hath its merchandise."   -  E. B. Browning
 * Origin: Calontir -- We Deliver. (1:291/19.0)
From: gray@ibis.cs.umass.edu (Lyle FitzWilliam)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Period Calendar Wanted
Date: 6 Jan 93 17:54:44 GMT
Reply-To: gray@ibis.cs.umass.edu (Lyle FitzWilliam)
Organization: Bergental, East Kingdom

In article <1993Jan5.074039.13915@organpipe.uug.arizona.edu>
tip@lead.aichem.arizona.edu (Tom Perigrin) writes:

>The reason is simple...   the gnomen parallels the axis of rotation (on a 
>good sundial, as opposed to a cheap KMart blue light special).   Since
>the earth rotates 15 degrees per hour, we could theoretically make a 
>dial by wrapping a cylendar around a gnomen, and marking it every 15 degrees.
>The shawdow will move with a constant velocity of 15 degrees every hour, no 
>matter what time of year.

Well, almost.  Let's not forget atmospheric distortion as the sun approaches
the horizon (daylight hours at the equinoxes on the Equator last more than 12
hours, because of refraction with the atmosphere).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lyle H. Gray                       Internet (personal): gray@cs.umass.edu
Quodata Corporation            Phone: (203) 728-6777, FAX: (203) 247-0249
--(My opinions are my own, and do not represent my employer's opinions)--
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: jeffs@math.bu.EDU (Jeff Suzuki)
Subject: timepieces
Organization: The Internet
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 19:28:40 GMT


 Dave Aronson <Dave.Aronson@p11.f120.n109.z1.fidonet.org>
  writes:

>3. Does anyone out there know of any self-adjusting timepieces that
>would take this stretching and shrinking of hours into account?

Alas, I missed the original post, so I'm not certain if the question
is for a timepiece that measures equal time, or one that evenly
divides the day into twelve hours.  

However, my Helvetian milk product of a memory recalls reading that
the introduction of mechanical timepieces (late in period, to be sure)
led to the abandonment of the Roman system of dividing the day into
twelve hours and the decision to let the day be as many hours long as
it had to be.

On the other hand, there are modern sundials that accurately give the
time of day for any day of the year.  The problem is that they're not
self-adjusting; the one I remember seeing (in Tucson, Arizona) was in
the shape of a figure eight, and one stood at a prescribed location
that corresponded to the day of the year; one's shadow, then, pointed
to the correct time.  I do not know how old these devices are, but
they have the potential for being as old as, say, the ancient
Egyptians.  

Tio dell'abaco
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: whheydt@pbhya.PacBell.COM (Wilson Heydt)
Subject: Re: LOST Small Dagger at West Kingdom 12th Night
Reply-To: whheydt@PacBell.COM (Wilson Heydt)
Organization: Pacific * Bell, San Ramon, CA
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 16:41:46 GMT

In article <5215@equinox.unr.edu> tamela@pyramid.unr.edu (Tamela R. Germano) writes:
>
>Help prevent marital strife and spouse abuse!  My hubby lost my 
>favorite dagger at 12th Night in Modesto this weekend.  It's a
>small stiletto, triangular blade, metal grip, with a brown leather
>sheath that has a metal tip.  

This is a followup to prevent a potential flood of messages.  The
dagger in question is in the hands of the Deputy Kingdom Constable for
Lost&Found.  Owner and Constable are being put in touch with each
other to arrange retrieval.

	--Hal, High Constable of the West

        Hal Ravn, West Kingdom
        Wilson H. Heydt, Jr.,  Albany, CA 94706,  510/524-8321 (home)

Nothing in this missive constitutes an act or opinion of the Lord High
Constable of the Kingdom of the West unless otherwise explicitly stated.
-- 
Hal Heydt                    |    
Analyst, Pacific*Bell        |            You!
510-823-5447                 |    Out of the Gene Pool!
whheydt@pbhya.PacBell.COM    |
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: vader@meryl.csd.uu.se ("]ke Eldberg")
Subject: Drachenwald, Inc.
Organization: The Internet
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 23:56:02 GMT

Greetings from William de Corbie!

Charles the Clerk writes:

>As I understand it (and I may well be wrong) the SCA will soon
>incorporate in Europe in some fashion or other, as it already has in
>Australia. 

This is news to me. The possibility of becoming fully independent
does exist, but I have not heard anyone discuss this as a serious
alternative for the forseeable future.

Further, "incorporating in Europe" is like "incorporating in Africa".
Europe is not a single nation, and until the EEC turns into a full-
fledged Union, a single corporation for the whole European continent
would be a quite tricky thing to establish, from a legal point of view.

>How much leeway SCA Europe has in this, before SCA USA declares them
>all heretics and places an interdict on Europe, is difficult to judge.

Remember Martin Luther? Be warned! :-)

William

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: cearr@cwis.unomaha.edu (Jesse C. Neese)
Subject: Re: Is there SCA Miniatures' Wargames rules ?
Organization: University of Nebraska at Omaha
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 17:20:15 GMT

    My squire-brother has found a set of rules for miniatures
around the 100-years war that seem very good.  I don't know the name 
but I'll find out and let you know.  What do you play?

                                         CEARR MACBRENDAN
                                      Lonely Tower, Calontir
From: paul@sierra.COM (Paul Stratton, Sierra Geophysics, Inc.)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: re: Announcement of new journal
Date: 8 Jan 93 19:59:51 GMT
Organization: The Internet

Bertram of Bearington writes:
!I was rather pleased and surprised to find that the academics at the
!University of Washington are publishing a scholarly journal named
!"Aestel," since "AEstel" is the name of the newsletter for the
!principality of AEthelmearc.  I served as the first editor of
!the AEstel, before we became a formal principality, and chose
!the name because it meant a pointer or bookmark (like a teacher's
!pointer) and/or also a "little spear" or "little pikestaff."
!Considering that the East Kingdom's newsletter is the "Pikestaff"
!it seemed appropriate... ;-)
!
!Of course, the AEstel Herald is based in An Tir, so perhaps the
!academics had a closer influence... ;-)

Nope. we've had the AEstel title for the last ten years.  I wouldn't be
surprised if it was the other way around.  A former Black Lion works as
an academic advisor in the English Department at the UW.

Drogo the Forgetful,
Black Lion PH,
An Tir
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
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Subject: Message Status
Organization: The Internet
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 07:56:00 GMT

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