The vehement "campification" of this perenial discussion is exciting my goat.
He wants to leap from peak to peak of the piles of combatants heaped on either side of this ridiculous surmize.
B-A-A-A-A my Gen can spell the lord's prayer on the head of a pin!
B-A-A-A-A My Abell is ready and willing, Gabrielle himself owns one of these!
Keep it up guys, my goat needs the exercise
Personally, I'll just stick to my understanding that a whistle lying on the stage will only attract as many bums-on-seats as a mime pretending to whistle. It's all obscure performance art until you put the 2 together, and the combination prooves to be up to the task. Most critical of all is the argument so conveniently missing in these jousts - i.e. which stage is the performance on?
Perfectly OK for the fleadh folks to insist on hobbled horses - imagine a trotter who's allowed to canter. At the sesh, well, how much spilled beer can your whistle stand? If you're playing for your cat, then the audience might be more demanding. If you're playing on a close-miked sound-stage, then there's another set of demands, studio work .. high-production movies ... etc etc etc. Consider that the most famous whistle of all (the Reskian flute) could not produce a note - but Picquard seemed to win the crowd with it regardless.
I know a player who makes every whistle he plays sound like a Gen, and yet he still appreciates a good one (gen or hand-made).
Still, who am I to get in the way of such thrilling etertainment. And like I said - consider my goat, he's been looking a bit flabby of late. Let the joust resume!