PANCAKE

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Happy Fat Tuesday, y'all. Or ShroveTuesday or Mardi Gras if you're French or Carnivale if you're just about anything else.

As those of you who have read my prior calendrical musings probably know, Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox. Tomorrow is the start of Lent, a period of 4o days of fasting, interrupted by Sundays, leading up to Easter. So today you have your last chance to eat up all the meat and fats in the house so you don't accidentally backslide and get found with bacon rind or a quarter-pound of butter in your maw.

Some of us just give up for Lent. Some of us try to figure out if we qualify to pass (pregnant women, folks with diabetes, etc.) on the fasting. Some of us are just glad we belong to denominations that don't insist on fasting. Maybe the Muslims have it right: their fasting at Ramadan only lasts from sunup to sundown. Makes it a lot easier physically for the long haul.

Anyway, there was a race this morning: the annual international competition between the ladies of Olney, England and Liberal, Kansas, USA. The Kansas winner and Overall Champion was Ms. Tasha Gallegos of Liberal.

(See KANSAN WINS 60th PANCAKE RACE)

The race involves running down the street with a skillet in one hand. During the course of the race, the runner has to flip a pancake and catch it in the skillet three times. I don't know if there are Olympic style tryouts, but on the other hand, no one has (so far) been accused of doping-unless you count extra syrup.

The word of the day for February 24, 2009 is "pancake" — Pronunciation: \'pan-,kāk\
Function: noun
Date: 14th century
: a flat cake made of thin batter and cooked (as on a griddle) on both sides.

Our quote for the day is from Antonin Scalia, recalled on his appointment to US Supreme Court, Newsweek 30 Jun 86:

[In a big family] the first child is kind of like the first pancake. If it’s not perfect, that’s okay, there are a lot more coming along.

;^)

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