Who Exactly is the Syrup Steward?

So maybe the snowy part of the year is behind us? Maybe. Now we have the windy and Lenty part for the next few weeks. Today is Shrove Tuesday, or Fat Tuesday (I'm living the dream so you'll have to handle some of this yourself). Tomorrow all the Mardi Gras and Karneval comes to an end with Ash Wednesday. I did not know of the full origin behind 'short shrift and a long rope' until elvis had left the edu. And there are those who insist the Internet is only good for free porn (don't click that link!).

When we were children in Catholic school we would give something up for Lent, I guess to emulate Jesus of Nazareth who gave His life for our sins. Somehow offering voluntarily to give up eating candy or to stop teasing my sister seems like small potatos in comparison (and, of course, I was lying because what I really promised was to stop getting caught teasing my sister). We also always had fish on Friday as "the Church" forbade us (I love that word!) from eating meat (I tended to see the fishing industry behind that whole thing, and still do).

This past weekend we had a good deal of sun with temperatures above freezing and many of us got to see something we hadn't since last fall, our own front lawns. I'm always surprised at how awful the grass looks after months under the snow. I don't think I'd look any better than it does if I'd been buried for three months, truth to tell, but it's still a little disappointing.

Daylight Savings Time begins this Saturday night/Sunday morning and I always smile thinking about the folks who work swing shifts who make out really well when we 'spring forward' in terms of their work schedule, but how it evens out, at least in theory as they get their comeuppance when we 'fall back.' Is that extra hour considered overtime? I have no idea; and what kind of a word is comeuppance and what's its opposite, comedownance?

At least for the next few months we have an additional hour of daylight in the afternoon to figure it out, with a few extra minutes of bright tacked on at the end. But that's for another time. Today is for celebrating that it's not quite Lent yet. Red Shrover, Red Shrover, let IHOP come over.
-bill kenny