[MR] A&S issue

[Bambi TBNL]

Back when rocks were soft, i remember noticing that there were several inconsistencies in a at s competitions. Cooking laurels who  had all their garb made because they had never done needlework of any kind, judging embroidery,. And they were the only judges in that competition cause they were the only laurel that volunteered. 
there was also the dilemma of researching and basically coming up with a thesis,  nobody had ever seen it done in this part of the SCA and you either dropped off documentation rivaling Websters dictionary ( and risked being ignored because it was too much), or got called a blue jeans researcher because  the common sense approach (  they had eggs , flour, fat, and wild onions; was it really needed for betty of crockery to write a onion pie recipe for it to be period?) was just not scholarly enough...... Really??             
-----i will admit that i have entered precious few a&s competiuons in my SCA career of 23 years. I have been asked to judge some and have enjoyed it immensely. Ive never seen an entry that did not have some value, something to extend the education of the observer'/judge, something to delight or just make one pause and reflect.  

It is a shame that, in an educational organization that prides itself on the ideals of chivalry, the problem that has fired up this topic is even a problem.