If Death Threats Did Not Scare Me I'd Go Again To The Scarborough Faire Renaissance Festival

Last weekend, in Waxahachie, the 2013 iteration of the Scarborough Faire Renaissance Festival started up.

Looking at the official website I see "Faire" has been dropped from the name.

I don't know why "Faire" would be dropped from the festival's name. My one and only visit, back in 2002, Scarborough seemed to be both a fair and a festival.

I enjoyed my visit to this Texas oddity. I made a webpage on my Eyes on Texas website chronicling my take on what I experienced at Scarborough Faire.

When I made that webpage I thought it to be a rather positive description of what I'd experienced.

However, my description of what I'd experienced unleashed the biggest firestorm of angry commenting I'd ever unleashed. The firestorm spilled over into a Yahoo forum and other locations I'm not remembering, over a decade later.

There were so many comments I quit putting them on the original page and made a separate page for all the "Feedback" calling that page Scarbo Feedback.

Calling that page Scarbo Feedback caused even more angry feedback, accusing me of being disrespectful with my use of the word "Scarbo" when "Scarby" is the only official accepted nickname for Scarborough.

I had never experienced so much ado over so little ever before. The likes of which I did not again experience til years later when dealing with Fubbo the Hut's irrational idiotic tantrum spewing of too much ado over nothing.

I enjoyed my one and only visit to Scarborough Renaissance Festival. I probably would have made a return visit, but I found the death threats to be a bit intimidating.

This year's Scarborough Renaissance Festival runs every Saturday and Sunday from now until Memorial Day Weekend.

To enter Scarbo, I mean, Scarby, Age 13 and older is considered to be an Adult, with it costing $24 for an Adult admission. Even though Scarby considers a 13 year old to be an Adult, I am fairly certain 13 year olds are not allowed to consume Scarby adult beverages. Age 12 and under is considered to be a Child, with a $10 entry fee.

This Is The Sorriest Excuse For A Town I've Ever Seen While Hiking The Humid Tandy Hills

Hiking the Tandy Hills Jungle was very very humid today.

But.

The hiking was made more pleasant due to the trail trimming some kind trail trimmer did.

In the picture you are looking at the newly trimmed trail into the area where the Tandy Bamboo TeePee Art Installation sits. Prior to the trimming, going through here required a lot of ducking and pushing brush out of the way.

Currently, coming up on 4 in the afternoon, it is 90 with the humidity making it feel like 100.

Have I ever mentioned that I get a lot of comments to my various blogs? And to my Eyes on Texas website?

Among my favorites of the comments are those from someone who is very overwrought over something they have read,  and then motivated to share their overwroughtedness. Usually in a way that comes across as very angry. And usually sort of stupid.

This morning I got an email from someone calling herself Diana Ware. The subject line said "Fort Worth."

I have no idea if Diana Ware is upset over something about Fort Worth on this blog or with something about Fort Worth on my Eyes on Texas website.

This is what Diana Ware had to say (with some profanity censored)....

"This is the sorriest excuse for a review of a town I've ever read.  You are a hateful sarcastic excuse for a writer.  I hope you never get to see or experience anything better than life as you describe it in Fort Worth.  I will bypass anything else I see by you on the web in the future.  I'm totally disgusted after reading this site--not by the town, but the sorry writer with such a sh**ty outlook."

This sort of reminds me of the bizarre reaction some Scarborough Faire Renaissance Festival people had to my description of Scarborough Faire. Many of them thought they were reading an article in a magazine. Among other things.

I have no idea where I've written a review of Fort Worth. Did Diana Ware Google for info about Fort Worth and clicked on a link to my website, or blog, thinking she was going to get travel information? Diana Ware somehow concluded I've never seen or experienced anything better than what I described of Fort Worth? Why would a person continue reading something that was totally disgusting to them? And then feel compelled to vent about their disgust?

People like Diana Ware are just a little scary to me.

And now it is time to go for a swim and some sun lounging in the 90 degree, feels like 100, heat.

Hiking Among The Tandy Hills Prickly Pear Cactus Thinking About Being Up A Creek With TRV MHMR SFRF FWW & Other Initials

In the picture you are with me today around noon, face to face with a patch of prickly pear cactus prickling up the Tandy Hills.

It was a perfect hiking temperature today, with a strong wind blowing.

This morning's swim was also perfect with the water warmer than the air.

I've been a blogging/websiting maniac today, on my blogs and other blogs, that are sort of like my secret secondary blogs.

I think all the commenting on the Paradise Center Scandal Blog is the most of that type activity I've experienced since years ago when I inadvertently caused myself the Scarborough Faire Renaissance Festival Brouhaha of over the top silly reaction.

The Scarborough Brouhaha was pretty much silly nonsense. The Paradise Center Scandal brouhaha is not something silly, it's something serious that sort of is like a boil on the festering sore that is the dark side of the Fort Worth Way of how the city and county government operate, with little accountability and zero transparency.

Meanwhile, on a brighter note, FW Weekly has an excellent article about Tarrant County's fiesty firebrand, Layla Caraway, and her multi-year battle to get Fort Worth and Tarrant County to wake up and face the water.

Read "TRV's Up a Creek: As the Trinity River moves right along, local communities still aren't  safe from floods" in this week's FW Weekly, the closest thing Fort Worth has to a real newspaper.

Duchess Jessamyn Has Invited Me To Middlefaire In Hillsboro Texas

Yesterday I said I had heard from the Duchess of Scarborough Faire Renaissance Festival. That was incorrect.

Correctly stated, I had heard from the Duchess of Middlefaire opining about my opining about Scarborough Faire Renaissance Festival.

Near as I can make out, the preferred name, for the Duchess of Middlefaire, is Jessamyn. I guess that makes her Duchess Jessamyn of Middlefaire.

Middlefaire takes place near Hillsboro. That's the Texas town located where Interstate 35 West and East merge as one, south of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

After I blogged about Duchess Jessamyn, and her Scarborough opining, I heard back from the Duchess, inviting me to Middlefaire and doing so in a sort of poetic fashion.

The message from Duchess Jessamyn is below....

**reads**
Oh, gods. They're gonna kill me. Dead.
So, do you want to put any bets as to whether you get comments saying 'What? Duchess? What? There's no Duchess at Scarby by that name!'
'Cause I bet they do. I really do.
I feel oddly famous now, being on the receiving end of a blog post. I mean, really:
Post 2003 = Scarborough Faire
Post 2010 = Jessamyn
So Scarborough Faire is roughly equivalent to Jessamyn.
I'm not THAT fat!
...
...
............ Okay, yeah I am.
So, for the record, if you do ever venture as far out into the wilderness as Hillsboro, I would be more than glad to get you into Middlefaire free. Just tell me what name you want your ticket held under, and what day. I am there. You can come with the band. Listen close, tip generously. Just pick a date from the list on this cheap and shabby website.

May There Be A Road (Come to faire and hear the song),

-Jessamyn (lore and fables, my faire personas have more normal names than I do), nearly Duchess of Middlefaire

I Have Heard From The Duchess Of Scarborough Faire Renaissance Festival

Way back in Spring of 2002 or 2003 I spent a couple hours at the Scarborough Faire Renaissance Festival in Waxachachie.

It was Pirate Adventure Weekend. That fact would later cause me all sorts of trouble. The simple little webpage I made of my visit, to what I called Scarbo (another crime), generated a storm of upset unlike anything I'd done before or since.

There were attempts to win me over, to what I guess was the Scarbo Cause. I got invited to Scarbo events. I got invited to a Scarbo Wedding. I got invited to document Scarbo Training. I was told if I returned for another visit, this time with a guide, I would have security protection.

But, in all the years since that fateful visit, I've not been back. It was all sort of a toxic experience. I get enought toxicity from some of my relatives. And others. I really don't need exposure to stranger toxicity, in the form of wenches and men in tights.

So, this morning I got what must be the longest Feedback Comment I've ever received. It came from a Scarboite calling herself Jacqueline Bones / Rosemary Margaret Barley / Cherubina Rosetta Antonia Cantalupi, Sixth child of the third cousin twice removed of the youngest brother of lady wife of the Duke of Padua, so I'm *breathes* practically a Duchess.

Below is the amusing Comment from the Duchess...

Yeah, I'm never going to get used to hearing it called Scarbo. Just never. Not a complaint. Just not one I've heard. I mean, I *just* got used to 'Scarby'. I laugh at my own inflexibilty. This must be why I'm a rennie: My total inability to move with the times.

Ah, the debate. I would have more respect for the original article and comments if it weren't so obvious that you don't give a damn what people say - you like those who agree with you, and mock those who don't... which is human nature, but does put your openmindedness in question. (By the way, if I got that one totally wrong, please let me know, with minimal sarcasm - I really didn't read every single bloody comment on the page, so I may totally be slandering your noble and bidder character.) Not that this really matters - more of a pet peeve, I suppose.

Now, a (hopefully) brief bout of persnicketyness.

Regarding anachronicity (this is a word, as of now, because I say so): Scarby has never (I don't think) even pretended to authenticity... if they have, then something is very, very wrong. Faire is a bit like Steampunk - the fun is in the mixing of time periods, which keeps it quirky (if I see an aticle on steampunk, I'm gonna do a culture revolution dance). The most die-hard authentic rennies at Scarby still bring out the anachronisms, just for the fun of it! The ones more intense than that... just don't come to faire. The become history professors. Robert Stout of Portershire (brewer and purveyor of fine spirits) is a loved one and a history lover of epic proprtions (bad, bad pun), who nevertheless will turn right around and make jokes based on twentyfirst century culture, because he enjoys it. It's one of the many ways that he's cooler than me. And it catches people a bit off their gaurd, which just makes it so much more entertaining. Note: Without A Net's most popular song is a rewritten Rice Crispies commercial. Dammit.

Regarding Nay-sayers: Oh, Janna, Janna, Janna... Why. Why bother. I thought that comment was stupid, too, but writing a three-page memo is the most pointless over-reaction.... Oh well.

People get so worked up over nothing (quothe the girl writing the enormous ever-growing e-mail when she should be doing her homework or sewing), it's just silly. That said, Don't Knock Diamond, the lady's the bomb. She's just too cool. It's not safe. And, she's been known to kill pixies with her cleavage, which is a hell of a way to go.

As for the people who posted sycophantically laughing at fellow rennies... Good luck. Tight knit group, thin nerves, drama queen tempers, do not use your real name.

Regarding your replies: Okay, I'm gonna be the persnickety person now, it's not a hobby. Playtrons do it as a hobby, and that's awesome. That was me from five to fifteen. But actual Rennies are for the most part professionals, and it's not a hobby. They are doing something they love, not in addition to, but often instead of a 'real job'. I was once at a Scarby birthday, and got to hear the words, "...sixty - and for a Rennie, that's halfway to retirement age!" ...which I thought was very classy.

Similar note, a favorite story from Daniel, Duke of Danger will often get Rennies talking about the looks you get at grocery stores when you pay in ones.

What's sad is that I probably have more, but I'm going to STFU now, so this is me signing out.

May There Be A Road,
-Jacqueline Bones / Rosemary Margaret Barley / Cherubina Rosetta Antonia Cantalupi, Sixth child of the third cousin twice removed of the youngest brother of lady wife of the Duke of Padua, so I'm *breathes* practically a Duchess.

P.S.
Regarding Steve: NO, you should defenitely not come out to Middlefaire. Oh no. Don't do it. it's tiny. It's like Scarby had a baby and abandoned her in a field. We need all the good hype we can get, and as little as possible of the bad! We've already had our flames, thank you....

Lake Powell Fish Catching Passive Aggressiveness & Scarborough Faire

In my email inbox this morning I found a long-winded tale, by Big Ed, tall taling about catching a single solitary fish at Utah's Lake Powell during a houseboating trip.

The tale was way too long to use as a blogging, so I re-wrote a much shorter version and put it on my Durango Roadtripping Blog. A blog which is starting to seem way too much like being back in school doing homework. So many facts to check on.

Also in the inbox this morning was something from my Favorite Blogging Co-Conspirator that can only be thought of as being cruel. She knew I was lamenting over wanting to go on a road trip or hike up a real mountain or swim at a saltwater beach, hopefully combining all three. So, what does Miss Sassypants send me? A picture of Fort Walton Beach where she spent several days lounging recently.

If that's not passive-aggressiveness, I don't know what is.

There is no saltwater beach in my future today, but I did go swimming, again, this morning at the crack of dawn. That is a pathetically weak substitute. Maybe I'll go for a long walk on the beach at Lake Grapevine today, which is another pathetic substitute, but at least it's a beach and if it's windy there'll be waves with whitecaps.

This weekend and Memorial Day is your last chance to go to Scarborough Faire Renaissance Festival for the year. I've only been to the Faire once, several years ago, but that day and its aftermath had a lingering effect. It's been awhile since I've gotten a death threat, so that's a good thing.

80 degrees. Time to shut the windows.

Scarborough Faire Renaissance Festival in Waxahachie Texas

The Scarborough Faire Renaissance Festival starts up tomorrow (Saturday, April 4) and continues every Saturday and Sunday through Memorial Day.

What is Scarborough Faire, you may be wondering. Well, it's this village built on a Texas prairie, replicating as best one can in the 21st Century a 16th Century English village.

Scarborough Faire is very very well done. I liked it more than Six Flags. There is jousting and sword fights, wenches with excessive boobage, skinny men in tights, all sorts of shows, crafts, music, food. And beer.

I've only gone to Scarborough Faire once, several years ago. I webpaged my experience. When I did that, little did I know, that I had set off the most over the top reaction to anything I'd done on the Internet. The overreaction continued for several years. I got invited back for a guided tour, so as to educate me out of my Scarborough ignorance. I got invited to Scarborough parties. And I got invited to attend their training sessions. I got invited to the Houston area Renaissance Festival. And I got invited to a wedding.

I did not manage to go to any of the things I was invited to. Not due to not wanting to. It just didn't work out. I did meet a couple of the Scarborough Faire Renaissance Festival people in person. That was interesting.

I may go this year. I may not. If you have not been to this event and you live in the D/FW zone, it is worth the drive and the admission price. Trust me. It is just outside of southwest Waxahachie. Waxahachie is just a few miles south of Dallas. If you've not seen Waxahachie before, it is also worth a visit, with its incredibly ornate courthouse square and all the Victorian houses in town. Waxahachie has been used as a movie backdrop several times.

I've almost talked myself into going to Waxahachie and Scarborough Faire.