How was everyone's weekend? Did you get all the saints and souls and ghosts and goblins you could handle? What about slapjacks?
It seemed like the best way to move on from the last project was to
return to the project that I started in January and regularly abandon. Ah, Book Lover's Cookbook, I can always count on you to be full of stuff I'm not going to get around to doing. But a Halloween-themed short story that results in pancakes? All over it.
As it turns out, I am pretty sure I had never actually read "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," which is borderline-inexcusable, seeing as how it is only a short story and also is free. So everything I knew about it was based on the Disney cartoon and, to a lesser extent, various re-imaginings. Here are some things I discovered in the original story, in ascending order of importance.
- Ichabod Crane most definitely did not look like Tom Mison, no matter how much I believe that we should all be trying as hard as possible to do so
- The word "peradventure" sounds a lot more exciting than "perhaps" or "perchance" and it's probably time to bring it back
- Ichabod is not a very sympathetic character; Brom is really more of a scamp than a jerk
- The Dutch word for donut is "olykoeks," as in "oily cakes." Gross!
- I have been walking around for 25 years or so with the impression that either a ghost or Brom straight up killed Ichabod, thanks Disney! and also my childhood brain!, which is strongly implied by Irving to be inaccurate
- This tale is not especially scary, but it is funny, especially if you are into sick burns regarding blowhards, old wives' tales, and being from Connecticut
- THIS ENTIRE STORY IS ABOUT FOOD
Seriously, all this time I thought that poor nerdy Ichabod was desperately in love with Katrina and got bullied SLASH MURDERED by the town jock and actually Ichabod was mostly interested in Katrina's land and house and all the delicious food items therein. He spends a lot gazing at animals, imagining them on plates with sausages around their necks and that sort of thing. That guy really wanted to get into her pantry, if you know what I'm saying. Not that I blamed him, after reading about all the orchards and giant porches and whatever I was ready to start vying for Katrina's hand myself. Irving's description of the bounty of autumn is actually really great and if you're interested in picturing your life as a late-18th century landowner, this will be right up your alley. Plus, slapjacks! Recommended all around.
We went Halloweenin' on Friday night, as you do. I think Anna was pretty impressed by Cash's Wild Kratts costume.
And Scarlett's stroller.
And while we were distracted by all that, this little monster went and turned three.
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| Threeeeee! |
