One of the things I find hardest to explain (maybe because I don't quite understand it myself) is the presence of pirates within the SCA. I mean, the great age of sea trade and piracy was well after the Middle Ages, and pirate garb has a rather eighteenth-century flair to it... That said, the pirates usually throw great parties; we walked by as one was in progress but didn't feel like standing in line to get in (I can do that in L.A.)!