throw another bear in the canoe - please please please let me get what i want

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please please please let me get what i want

Mar. 14th, 2013 at 11:23 AM

There's a publication date (or dates) for my dear Mr. Lynch's Republic of Thieves, and it's Pi Day!

I'm going to tell you my favorite clean joke. It goes like this:

In the rest of the world, when they say Yankee, they mean somebody from North America. In North America, when they say Yankee, they mean somebody from the USA. In the USA, when they say Yankee, they mean somebody from above the Mason-Dixon line. Above the Mason-Dixon line, when they say Yankee, they mean somebody who lives in the Northeast. In the Northeast, when they say Yankee (if they're not talking about the sportsball team) they mean somebody from New England.

And in New England, when they say Yankee, they mean somebody who eats pie for breakfast.

I eat pie for breakfast.

When I celebrated my first Thanksgiving in Las Vegas in 1999, the single thing that made me most homesick for New England was the pie. You see, here in the Northeast, pie is made of fruit or vegetables or both (strawberry rhubarb, mmm) or sometimes meat and vegetables and gravy (chicken pot pie, mm...) and it's baked in a pastry crust. Confronted with a chocolate cream pie made with instant pudding and a crust of crushed up Oreos...

I'm sure it's very nice.

But it's not pi.

We're having pumpkin and bumbleberry pi tonight. What are you having?

In any case, the Boskone Blog is celebrating Pi Day with recipes and anecdotes, including one from me. Why not head over there and check it out?

Current Mood: bouncy
Current Music:The Smiths - The Headmaster Ritual

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Comments

( 40 comments — Leave a comment )

liret

Mar. 14th, 2013 03:40 pm (UTC)

I keep being surprised by the fact that people outside New England don't seem to realize apple pie can be classified as a breakfast food. Especially if you add cheddar.

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matociquala

Mar. 14th, 2013 03:49 pm (UTC)

mmm. Cheddar.

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Mar. 14th, 2013 04:22 pm (UTC)

I have always considered apple pie with cheese to be a breakfast food. And I grew up in Ohio.

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Mar. 14th, 2013 03:48 pm (UTC)

I'm in the Northeast, above the line, but not New England - solidarity, sister. Fruit (and veggie) pies 4 eva. And for breakfast, too. Apple's my favorite but never in my life will I turn down a slice of cherry, pumpkin, blueberry, rhubarb, raspberry, blackberry ...

Mmmmmm. Pie.

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Mar. 14th, 2013 04:07 pm (UTC)

I now live in the Deep South, and it seems that cobbler is far more common than pie. Which is just strange.

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fidelioscabinet

Mar. 14th, 2013 04:11 pm (UTC)

You can make a cobbler when it's too hot & humid to make a good pie crust, so that's my bet. This may also explain the existence of batter-based cobblers instead of dough-based cobblers.

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matociquala

Mar. 14th, 2013 04:24 pm (UTC)

And biscuit based ones.

This.

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Mar. 14th, 2013 04:50 pm (UTC)

Ah, of course, that makes all kinds of sense!

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fidelioscabinet

Mar. 14th, 2013 04:16 pm (UTC)

My great-grandmother Bunker once calculated she made 90 pies in the 30 days that covered the first hay harvest and the wheat harvest. Granted, they were 8" pies and not 9" pies, and they had extra hands for the harvest, plus 5 children (two of them teenaged boys), but still--90 pies!

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Mar. 14th, 2013 04:32 pm (UTC)

We do the fruit/veggie kind of pie, the chicken pot kind of pie, and the oreo kind of pie. North Carolina now but from Georgia with a Maryland twist for a but. Happy Pi Day.

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Mar. 14th, 2013 04:43 pm (UTC)

I had strawberry-rhubarb last night. The craft group I'm part of meets every other Wednesday at the Grand Traverse Pie Company. I'll have pi today, but not sure what yet. From the same place, though. Marvelously, one of the members of the craft group has her birthday on Pi Day, and loves pie!

Interesting about Yankee! I didn't know the part about it meaning someone who eats pie for breakfast although I consider pie to be a perfectly wonderful breakfast food!

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racebannon42

Mar. 14th, 2013 04:51 pm (UTC)

Hoody Hoo!

Very excited by this news!

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beccastareyes

Mar. 14th, 2013 05:51 pm (UTC)

I should go to the store and get some pie, then.

Also, my mother was born and raised in Boston, so I totally was brought up with the idea that pie is a breakfast food. Really, it's not that different from other breakfast pastries, and it often has fruit in it.

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matociquala

Mar. 14th, 2013 05:53 pm (UTC)

The fruit to pastry ratio is higher than in a danish.

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jennythe_reader

Mar. 14th, 2013 06:33 pm (UTC)

Pudding pie in a graham cracker or cookie crust is its own thing, it is not a substitute for real pie. Anyone who doesn't realize this should be shunned. (Its closest counterparts would probably be icebox cake or maybe ice cream cake.)

I'm from Michigan, where the New England influence means that if you just say "pie" most folks will assume you're talking about fruit (probably apple or cherry). But if it turns out you mean pudding pie it won't break anybody's brain.

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Mar. 14th, 2013 07:06 pm (UTC)

Yes! You understand. Crumbles are...not pi.

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mrissa

Mar. 14th, 2013 07:31 pm (UTC)

Wait. Is rhubarb a vegetable?

/mind blown

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matociquala

Mar. 14th, 2013 07:35 pm (UTC)

It's a LEAF STALK. I know, rite?

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Mar. 14th, 2013 09:05 pm (UTC)

After several more exciting plans fell through, my pie for Pi Day is, in fact, instant chocolate pudding in pre-made tiny graham cracker crusts. (At least I cut up the banana bits that I added myself?)

It's not really real pie, but it shows intention.

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matociquala

Mar. 14th, 2013 09:50 pm (UTC)

*sigh*

I need that star gif they use on Tumblr: "You tried."

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Mar. 14th, 2013 10:25 pm (UTC)

I made a proper meat pie on Tuesday! That just threw everything off.

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matociquala

Mar. 14th, 2013 11:01 pm (UTC)

Leftovers would count...

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triskelmoon

Mar. 14th, 2013 09:14 pm (UTC)

Lemon Sour Cream Pie, or Pecan Pie, or... Excuse me, I need to go to the store and buy some pi.

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just_ann_now

Mar. 14th, 2013 10:10 pm (UTC)

Never mind the pie, I'm gleeful over the book release news!

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batwrangler

Mar. 14th, 2013 11:14 pm (UTC)

My compliments to Mr. Lynch!

Mmmm, pi(e).

Edited at 2013-03-14 11:14 pm (UTC)

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matociquala

Mar. 14th, 2013 11:18 pm (UTC)

Mt. Lynch... Mt. Sykes... Mt. Minz... *g*

There will likely still be pi(e) on Saturday.

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batwrangler

Mar. 14th, 2013 11:22 pm (UTC)

Now I'm sorry I fixed my typo.

:)

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matociquala

Mar. 14th, 2013 11:27 pm (UTC)

Two 4th Streets ago,

michaeldthomas was standing in the middle of Scott, Mark Gritter, and TimProv.

His comment: "I feel like I'm failing sexual dimorphism."

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lindenfoxcub

Mar. 15th, 2013 12:54 am (UTC)

I found saskatoon pie - my absolute favourite, and I never find it in the store, but I found one today, and it was the last one, and I'm eating it tonight after stirfry.

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matociquala

Mar. 15th, 2013 12:56 am (UTC)

What is it??

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lindenfoxcub

Mar. 15th, 2013 12:59 am (UTC)

What's saskatoon pie? Saskatoons are a berry - they look like blueberries, but a lot smaller, the bushes they grow on are taller, and they taste different from blueberries. They don't seem to be cultivated on the same scale as blueberries, so it's a lot harder to find them, but you can usually find saskatoon jam in stores. I dunno, maybe it's more common in Canada. :P

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matociquala

Mar. 15th, 2013 01:07 am (UTC)

I've never even heard of them. *g*

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lindenfoxcub

Mar. 15th, 2013 01:19 am (UTC)

Never thought about it before, they're native to my area, the Canadian prairies, so they might be a lot more common around here. You can find them growing wild here sometimes. Just checked wikipedia, and they're not native to new england, or really anywhere near you. They're really awesome though, if you ever see saskatoon jam in the grocery store, try it out :)

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matociquala

Mar. 15th, 2013 01:24 am (UTC)

Roger. *g*

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krfsm

Mar. 15th, 2013 06:46 am (UTC)

One version of that joke that I heard included, I think, one step between "someone from New England" and "eats pie for breakfast" -- I think it was "when somebody from New England says it, they mean a Vermonter. And when a Vermonter says it, they mean someone who eats pie for breakfast".

And I had apple pie last night, when it was still Pi(e) Day.

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matociquala

Mar. 15th, 2013 01:30 pm (UTC)

Heh. Well, I lived in Vermont for a little while, but I was very young. And I still consider myself a Yankee...

I need some pie for breakfast now.

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scarlettina

Mar. 15th, 2013 02:04 pm (UTC)

There is a tiny bakery called "Pie" about 6 blocks from my house.

markferrari,

calendula_witch and I went there after a wonderful sushi dinner for dessert. A sign in the window said, "Due to the craziness of Pi Day, Pie will be closing early, at 8 PM." And sure enough, the doors were locked. We went away heartsore and yearning for sweetness. Mark consoled himself with ice cream. Shannon and I suffered in silence. ::sigh::

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matociquala

Mar. 15th, 2013 02:07 pm (UTC)

Aww. On the other hand, Pi Day seems to be catching on!

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liddle_oldman

Mar. 15th, 2013 02:47 pm (UTC)

I had to read the joke several times before I realized the line about pie for breakfast was the punch line -- because, of course, who doesn't eat pie for breakfast? :)

(My father's family settled by the Kennebeck River in the 1760s. Not mayflower Yankee, but sort of New Englandy nonetheless.)

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matociquala

Mar. 15th, 2013 03:39 pm (UTC)

Yes.

I did have pie for breakfast this morning, too.

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( 40 comments — Leave a comment )