Fireside song, and the new technique

[Lance Harrop <lharrop@mrj.com>]

Greetings Cheapside
> 
Eogan writes:

> Actually, according to a new technique, devised by the famed Nordic Thinker
> (and burner of Villiages), Erik of the Grey Matter, the order actually does
> go "rape, burn, and plunder."
> This is his logic:
> Of course you rape first, for the women and sheep are squeemish and are
> liable to run away at the sight of a horned helmed, fur wearing, flea
> infested Norseman weilding an axe or hammer or some other instument of
> destruction.  Then you burn all of the buildings down.  This makes it a lot
> easier to plunder, for all you have to do is kick through the ashes and pick
> up the shiney bits!
> Just thought I'd enlighten you.

Sorry Eogan, but I have to regard that as bad business practice.  Many of 
the portable goods one expects to collect a-viking are in the form of 
bolts of cloth, wood, and leather goods.  All of these of course are 
destroyed by fire, so pillage, then burn is the appropriate methodology.  
Also, many of the metal goods, especially jewelry, are delicately made 
and would melt or be damaged by fire, the heat of which is hard to 
control under the circumstances we are discribing.

Of course, burning is not an economic activity at all, we just do it for fun.

In service
Leifr