Happy Fat Tuesday!

When I worked in a Catholic Hospital, the tradition was administrators made pancakes ("using up" the oils, butters and syrups) and served the employees breakfast. But the Sisters have since sold that hospital to secular interests, and I'm sure the Shrove Tuesday tradition long since died.*

We don't celebrate too much in this country. Why? Because every day, potentially -- every weekend at least -- is akin to what used to be celebrated in cleaning out the house that day in preparation of Lent. What's so big about gorging on fats and sweets if you can visit the grocer and do that any old day? And why get liquored up tonight if you've no plans to abstain for the next 40? What's so special about that?

Still, old habits die hard. So... Happy Fat Tuesday! to you and yours, if you're the celebrating type. And well, just happy Tuesday to you, dear reader, if you're not. :-)

---------------------
*UPDATE: Oh, and did I mention the employee Pancake Races? You haven't lived until you've seen your fellow co-workers racing around a slippery course outside, competing to be the first across the finish line with a pancake still balanced on their spatula. Sounds hokey, I'm sure, but you tell that to the radiology guys, who used to take the competition very, very seriously! (I think their string of victories was evidence of some actual getting together and practicing days before the "big event", not that you'd ever get them to admit that. Still, it was usually good outdoor camraderie on an otherwise unremarkable winter day.)