Tuesday, February 21, 2012

TDBAW 2012

It's the day before Ash Wednesday, variously known as The Day Before Ash Wednesday, Pączki Day, Shrove Tuesday, Fastnacht, Fat Tuesday, or Mardi Gras. Which means it's time to eat pączki or pancakes or fastnachts or king cake. This year I went to Banas Bakery in Wallington and obtained pączki, rich, hamburger-sized yeast buns filled with prune jam, rose marmalade, custard cream, or raspberry jam.

Pączki

Last week I was so annoyed by the uproar over birth control that I pulled out the scariest yarn I have in stash, Great Adirondack Yarn Co. Soxie, colorway Chili Peppers and wrote a long, ranty post. (Gentle readers who abhor non-knitting content may wish to scroll down to the pink bunnies.)

Scary yarn

The yarn is scary because while it is beautiful in the skein, when knit it develops prominent flashes of teal blue on a chili red background. Not what I would have expected, and decidedly not to my taste. The rant included the virally infamous birth control panelists, who at times were the colors of chili peppers too.

Birth control panel

Photo credit: LGBT | POV


Given it's TDBAW, instead of ranting and turning chili pepper colors myself, suffice to note that despite strenuous claims to the contrary, there is no freedom of religion conflict here. As Constitutional attorney David Boies explains, the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution does two things with respect to religion: it prohibits its establishment (= creation of a national church), and it guarantees its free exercise. Free exercise includes freedom of conscience, but does not always include freedom of conduct.

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However, I detect a freedom from religion issue. No doubt the would-be theocrats are sincere in their beliefs, not least a belief that the dictates of their church possess a higher authority that should be above the rule of law and universally imposed. Unfortunately for them, the awkward fact they seek to legislate morality only emphasizes their failure to persuade their own congregants, people of differing faiths, and people of no faith, and raises even more awkward questions about religious authority. Given those realities, and speaking as a practicing Christian who may differ in doxis yet tries to respect the praxis of others, I'd like to eat my pączki (and pancakes and fastnachts and king cake) in peace.

Marshmallow Bunnies inside out

Moving along, tomorrow is the beginning of Lent. One of the things I'm giving up is this Marshmallow Bunnies sock. I'd really hoped to have the pair finished to wear for Easter, but it simply will not fit over my heel. As the picot hem is too big and the stranded section is too small, should I return to this pattern, I may have to fiddle with stitch counts or intarsia to get enough ease.

I did cast on a chili peppers sock – more on that in another post.

1 comment:

Kaye said...

I love Jersey, but I've yet to find a paczki that's as good as you can get in Michigan. But then again, any baked good made with literally 12 dozen eggs in the mix, can't be bad, right? ;-)