Pancake flap upstages Super Tuesday

Well, IHOP would like to make you think so, anyway.

The pancake house chain was alarmed to discover that the 2008 Super Tuesday primaries were set for Feb. 5, a date that coincides with Shrove Tuesday — arguably the most important date in the pancake calendar!

(I didn't realize there was a pancake calendar, but then, why shouldn't every foodstuff have its own way of marking time?)

This isn't just a marketing gimmick for IHOP. Throughout the British Isles and in many other countries, the day before Ash Wednesday is commonly known as Pancake Day.

Ah, Pancake Day! In Ireland housewives run through town, each carrying a skillet with a large, very thin pancake. The idea is for the women to race to the finish line, tossing their pancakes as they run.

There's even a fertility angle. If the eldest unmarried daughter in a household is able to toss a pancake into the air and catch it again in the skillet, she will be married within a year. But if it doesn't flip or she drops it, she'll remain single.

See, this is what people did before Lost. Needless to say, the ladies of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary's "holy homemaking" graduate degree program would have this competition nailed.

In what is being billed as a compromise, IHOP says it will celebrate on Feb. 12 instead. Several state governors have agreed to proclaim Feb. 12 as "National Pancake Day." Lent, apparently, will proceed as usual despite the controversy.

To celebrate Shrove Tuesday, you can watch this video clip featuring an automated "confessional," even though the clip's been out for a while.

(Also, so sorry for the delay in finishing my review of the Picturing the Bible: The Earliest Christian Art exhibit. The subject got me pondering the definition and meaning of art itself, the place of the artist in the body of Christ, one thing led to another, and, well, when I've dug out from under all the research, I'll let you know what I've found out in Part II.)

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