Ex Bibliotheca

The life and times of Zack Weinberg.

Monday, 14 October 2002

# 10:40 PM

renfaire

Yesterday I went to the "Heart of the Forest" Renaissance Faire with a bunch of friends. Sights! Sounds! Clothes which have been out of fashion for centuries! ...Five hours in miserable heat with no sunglasses. The site was by no stretch of the imagination in a forest; there were a few big oak trees, but not nearly enough to provide adequate shade to make it pleasant to wear medieval garb (designed for a much cooler climate).

However, it was great fun. The high point of the day was probably the various performances, including a demonstration of falconry, an Irish dance (I didn't know they had tapdancing then!) and an authentic Punch and Judy puppet show.

The low point of the day was the shop selling a remarkably malicious set of magical charms. Either the shopkeeper doesn't believe that they work, in which case they're a fraud and a charlatan to sell them in the first place, or they do believe that they work, in which case selling e.g. a "charm to break up an existing relationship" with no strictures or conditions on its use is highly unethical. And the whole concept of openly selling magic charms is out of period. If I'd been properly roleplaying the honest merchant type that my costume implied, I should have gone straight to the constabulary and denounced them for witchcraft.

niftiness

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