[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Correction!

Wow.... I thought yesterday was Pancake Day. However, as it turns out, today is actually Pancake Day!

Here's the official International Pancake Day website.

And, here's the IHOP National Pancake Day website.

Apparently, there's some controversy with Pancake Day as IHOP doesn't want to share this Fat Tuesday tradition with the myriad of bungling political primaries going on under the auspices of Super Tuesday. As a result, a schism has been created in the land, and we now have TWO pancake days (Today, Feb 5th, and Next week, Tuesday, Feb 12th).

Here's the IHOP press release:

About National Pancake Day
February 12, 2008

Known also as Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras, National Pancake Day dates back several centuries to when the English prepped for fasting during Lent. Strict rules prohibited the eating of all dairy products during Lent, so pancakes were made to use up the supply of eggs, milk, butter and other dairy products…hence the name Pancake Tuesday, or Shrove Tuesday.

In 2008, Fat Tuesday falls on February 5, which also happens to be Super Tuesday, on which a record number of states will hold their Presidential primaries. In the interest of embracing the democratic process, IHOP has postponed its celebration of National Pancake Day by one week, and will give away free pancakes on February 12.

Since beginning its National Pancake Day celebration in 2006, IHOP has raised nearly one million dollars to support charities in the communities in which it operates. With your help, we hope to raise $750,000 for Children’s Miracle Network in 2008!

What does this mean for you?

Well, not only do you get to violate some arcane and silly Catholic tradition of starving yourself for forty days, you also get to eat more pancakes.

Enjoy!

-DP

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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of aDistracted Mind at 2/05/2008 09:13:00 AM

[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] And the Human Spirit Still Wins...

Abandoned places have always fascinated me. I'm not entirely sure why that is either. Maybe there's something about seeing an old, vacant, broken down mental hospital that gives me a sense of hope. After all, people are sent to these places when they are essentially at their very worst, and though the patients and staff are most likely long gone, the buildings still stand, and only the ghosts remain in the shadows and fractured light filtering in through the cracked and grimy windows.

Anyway, this site is the absolute best I've ever come across in terms of photos of abandoned places: Opacity.

Some of these are just astounding.

The picture you see here was taken at Whittingham Hospital in Goosnagh, Lancashire, and it depicts a mere thirteen years of neglect. Like the human mind, I suppose the places built to mend it can often be just as fragile.

I hope you enjoy clicking around on the galleries and reading the stories. It really is a spooky, eerie, and fantastic trip into human history.


-DP


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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 2/04/2008 07:21:00 PM

[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] It's Pancake Day!

Now, I'm not terribly sure what is involved in Pancake Day, but I like it.

In fact, I think I love Pancake Day.

It may very well be the most beautiful holiday ever conceived in the puny minds of men. To me, the invention of pancakes is right up there with quantum mechanics, the microwave oven, and those helpful little plastic ends they put on shoe laces to keep them from getting all frizzy and difficult.

Without pancakes, my world would be a very sad place.

Unfortunately, I didn't realize it was Pancake Day until well after I had finished my lunch of a meatloaf sandwich and started making a massive batch of Dan's Happy Chili for dinner --it's got all sorts of yummy stuff in it from chipotle and chorizo to dark brown sugar and Dutch processed cocoa as well as about seven or ten different kinds of peppers. Each spoonful is like a happy gnome on crack bouncing quickly around the inside of your mouth with a blazing torch to provide a little heat just about everywhere at different times. He's not a violent gnome by any stretch. After all, I hate foods that are so damn spicy you can't tell what the hell it is you're eating. I've eaten some pretty odd meat of very questionable pedigree on more than one occasion that was so bloody painful, I could have been gnawing on my tongue for all I knew.

To me, that just takes all the fun out of eating.

Anyway, since it's pancake day, and I worry that if I miss it, Pancake Day will be no more, I'm going to have to figure out a way of making cornbread pancakes that don't resemble the garden variety tortilla. Perhaps something along the lines of a Native American fry-bread (which I could eat until my head falls off). Of course, I will have to cook it in a pan so as to remain loyal to the pancake Ouvue.

That also makes me somewhat sad since, every time I step into my kitchen with the notion of making pancakes, a curious look crosses my face and my deep-fryer starts drooling. I swear, sometimes in those silent, early-morning hours before the house is overrun with cats, I can hear the delicate, loving whisper of "bring me the batter" coming from my fryer.

So, obviously, I only have two options:

First, I can ignore the promise of goodness of deep-fried pancake batter coming from the whimpers of my deep-fryer, and I can make pancakes the old-fashioned way --in a pan.

Or, the other, slightly more unusual, option would be to whip up the pancake batter, dip a pan into it, and throw the whole thing into the deep fryer to inevitably end up with a cake shaped like a pan.

Needless to say, I'm going to have to work on this...

Nonetheless, I hope you all manage to celebrate Pancake Day. If you've got an IHOP or some other less international pancake outlet near you, I recommend you go and enjoy yourselves. Don't forget the butter and maple syrup (remind me to write about the time I got a massive jug of "mapel syrup" sometime. It's how I came to the conclusion that the best maple syrup money can buy is made by people who can not spell).

So, Viva La Pancake!

-DP


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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 2/04/2008 01:42:00 PM

[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Super Sunday?

Let's just get this out of the way...

The Super Bowl is tonight.

The way I see it, the Giants are going to win quite handily with a final score of 35-17. The Pats will start off slow, and Mini-Manning will take advantage. So, there ya go. No need to watch, and now you can spend your time doing more important things like getting drunk or sleeping. Sorry if I spoiled it for you.

Aside from that, I don't know how much I'll be able to slap up here on my little slice of the World Wide Weird today. There's a heap of family stuff going on at the moment that I will try to get to writing about later.

Anyway, I hope you all manage to enjoy your Sunday, and I hope your weekends were good ones.

What did everyone do this weekend?

Does anyone need an alibi?

-DP

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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 2/03/2008 11:26:00 AM

[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] The Rodent Needs to Die!

Apparently, that contemptible, odious, little rat crawled from his hovel, saw his shadow, and condemned us all to six more freakin' weeks of this miserable winter.

Yes. It's Groundhog Day.

I hate Groundhog Day...

I hate groundhogs.

The way I see it, considering my arms have all but fallen off after digging myself out from the blizzard that fell yesterday, I don't know if I can handle another six weeks (which actually translates to another six months for us upper-Midwesterners). It's torture, and a god damned rat is the one carrying out my punishment.

I'll get even, though. Somehow, I will find a groundhog, I will kill it, and I will use its frozen carcass to brush the snow off my car and his little bucked teeth to scrape the ice from my windshield so I can get a better view of the hazardous, snow-packed roadway.

Would you like that Mr. Groundhog? Would that make you happy?

Perhaps we should just blind the damn critter. Really. Would it be so hard giving the little rat a poke in the eyes before he leaves the house? After all, if he can't see, he can't see his shadow, and we won't have to be reminded that this endless, freaking, nightmare of snow, ice and bitter cold will continue until we all go crazy like Jack Nicholson in The Shining.

How about blunt force trauma to the head?

A Taser gun to make Phil all nice and sparky and smoldering?

Ah well... Next year.

Next year I will make the pilgrimage to Gobbler's Knob, and I'm going to bring an axe. And, I will bring friends. They will have shovels, and there will be a blood-soaked coup.

This rodent's reign of terror will come to an end!

-DP


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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 2/02/2008 09:09:00 AM

[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Headline of the Month?

(Full Story)

Here's a screen-shot of a story out of Hagerstown, MD.

I wonder if he was a plumber... Maybe he's a carpenter? It's hard to say really, but sometimes, I guess, the headlines just seem to almost write themselves.

-DP


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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 2/01/2008 11:14:00 PM

[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] At the Buzzer....

Sorry... I've been out all day, and I'll get around to writing about that tomorrow. Right now, I feel like I dragged a grand piano out of a puddle of quicksand. Yes. We got snow. Lots and lots of goddamn snow!

However, since it's Friday, and the weekend is racing up on us, I would be remiss if I neglected to ask you all what your plans are for the weekend.

Is anyone doing anything fun? Anyone got any smokin' hot dates?

Well, I'm off. Have a great night, and I'll see ya tomorrow.

-DP

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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 2/01/2008 10:28:00 PM