Canton of Whyt Whey
The Canton of Whyt Whey is an SCA branch defined by the borders of the mundane County of New York (Manhattan Island). It is part of the East Kingdom.
History
The origins of the Canton of Whyt Whey lay in the backyard of Sir Edward Zifran of Gendy in the 1980's. He would hold fighter practice back there and afterwards everyone would go to a restaurant across the street called P.J. Reynolds (now defunct). Eventually the fighter practice was no longer held at his house, but the gathering at the restaurant on Tuesday nights remained.
Sometime about 1988, someone looked around and said words to the effect of "hey, we could start a canton here!" The original thought was to call the canton "Grate Whyte Whey" as a pun on the misspelling of Ostgardr that would mean "cheese farm" and the nickname for Broadway. The heralds allowed only the last two words to be the name of the canton.
Heraldry
There was much debate over the device for the canton. Some of the founding members were adamant about it having cockroaches, that most indomitable of local fauna, on it. Others were grossed out by the idea. The current registered device is "Sable, a german beetle dismembered within a laurel wreath and on a chief embattled argent, a pomme."
Events
Being located in the county of New York (the island of Manhattan), few full-size, and no camping events have ever occurred there. Possibly the largest event was the "May Games" event held in Central Park, with the feast held at the West Side YMCA. The group does many demos for schools, and has had a presence at the Fort Tryon Park Medieval Festival for several years. From 1992-2005 the weekday fighter practices were held in Union Square, and many news organizations, TV stations, and independent journalists, photographers, and videographers have acquired words, pictures, and footage of SCA members and SCA fighting there.
Publications
The newsletter is known as the Cheese Cloth.
Officers
The unnofficial titles of the officers of Whyt Whey are as follows:
- The Black Flag pursuivant
- The Combat knight marshal
- The Raid captain-general of archers
- The Roach Motel chatelaine
- The Hav-a-Heart seneschal
- The D-Con of arts and sciences
