[MR] Do Heralds dream of (em)blazoned sheep?

[Robert J Welenc]

At 11:45 PM 6/5/01 -0400, Mike Ruttle wrote:
>Lady Alanna,
>
>I would like to start off by apologizing for offending both you and
the rest
>of the Heralds with my humor. I in truth have nothing but respect
and
>admiration for the work that you do in providing the society with a
quality
>service. My examples in my early posts were designed to demonstrate
what
>many consider to be absurdity by being absurd. However, I have given
offence
>and for that I apologies.

I accept your apology, my lord, and apologize to the list at large
for the language I used.

The office of Golden Dolphin can be an extremely frustrating one.
Let me use an analogy here, one not from the world of heraldry.

Suppose that you are a maker of custom garb.  One day a young lady
comes to you and hands you a couple of bolts of fabric and a picture
that she has taken from a book of fairy tales.  She says, "I want you
to make me a dress that is just like this but is authentic for
Florence in 1495."

Ok.  The picture looks kind of like Italian ren, so you accept the
commission.  During the next month you do extensive research on the
web and in your books, looking for images of  Florentine gowns from
the very late 15th century.  You contact the client a couple of times
to make a query and to keep her informed of your findings and the
changes that you've made to make the dress authentic.  You then spend
2 months conferring with costuming experts on Florentine garb, just
to make sure that you've got all the details just right.  After 7
months, you make the delivery of a gown that you are justifiably
proud of.  

The client takes one look at it and screeches, "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO
MY GARB?!?!  The neckline is half an inch too high and there are too
many puffs on the sleeves and you've used six pieces of boning
instead of seven!  It's completely RUINED!!! And to top it all off,
you've described it completely differently from the way that I would!
  I'll take it because I've paid for it, but I'm going to tell
everyone I know that you and all the other garb makers in the Known
World ruin people's clothes because you don't like Italians!!"

An exaggeration?  Not at all.  Ask any senior Herald about the people
who are upset because they've had an accent mark added to or deleted
from their names, or had the spelling changed to the documentable
forms *that they requested*, or had the blazon tweaked on their
armory. 

As for the armory regulations that I have handed down in my tenure,
all of them originated as requests, most of them dating back many
years -- *repeated* requests that have been completely ignored.

Since December 1999, when I took over from Lord Evan, the Golden
Dolphin office has handled over 700 items.  I do not believe that it
is unreasonable to insist on these requirements:

the standard forms required by Laurel (who handles 3 to 4 *thousand*
per year)
accurate documentation (as needed)
the right size forms
identifiable drawings
drawings that do not have to be redrawn
true colors in mediums that ensure that they stay true colors

Is it too much to ask?


Alanna
***********
Saying of the day: You cannot unscramble eggs.