Happy Pączki Day!

Lent to us Catholics meant giving up something.  At least that’s what the nuns told us.  It was Sister Mary Delores, or Constance, or some other name depending on what grade we were in at the time.

“If Jesus gave up food for forty days,” their logic always began, “you can give up something, too.”

Usually, candy was my choice.  Mom hardly ever had any around the house and certainly never bought any for us.  On the occasions we accompanied her shopping to the Kroger for groceries, or any other store for that matter, they didn’t have shelves of Snickers and other treats at the check out line to tempt us.  Even when we did happen to spot some in the store, she just said, “No.  You don’t need that.”  If, like some kids do today, we attempted some type of temper tantrum to get candy, that temerity would earn us a quick stern look and perhaps a smack up side the head.

Most of my childhood candy was purchased during summer’s day-long baseball games at the park.  At the end of a game, my teammates and I would gather at a small store for a soda and whatever else we could afford for candy.  Since Lent normally occurs during months when the snow and ice still covered the park, I had no need to stop at that corner store. 

So, when the nun called my name and asked, “What are you giving up for Lent?” candy was my easy choice.  It was something I had little chance or opportunity to get, and my answer always satisfied the nuns.  I always wondered, though, what nuns gave up for Lent.

Grandma Bronislawa loved this day, the day before Lent begins.   It’s called Shrove Tuesday, Mardi Gras, and Fat Tuesday.   Most people think that today is meant to splurge before the Lenten season.  Some people think that means to take it to bacchanalian extremes of wantonness.   Grandma just thought fat was where it’s at.

She saved her fat over the year.  Whatever grease she had accumulated cooking, she drained into an empty coffee can.  Today’s recycling fanatics could learn a lot from the way people used to live and reused everything.  Grandma Bronislawa could carry a week’s garbage to the curb in one bag and keep it at arm’s length with just her two frail fingers.

Come Fat Tuesday, Grandma took that coffee can, which was now full, and in which a year’s worth of bacon and chicken grease had now coagulated, and scraped it all into a big pot on the stove.  If she needed more, she added Crisco.

As that mixture cooked to a boil, she made her dough and rolled it into balls, and when they were ready, dropped them in the pot.    Sometimes she injected them with fillings like apple or prune or apricot.  Sometimes she left some with no filling at all.  I think she did that just for me.  I didn’t need anything but powdered sugar sprinkled on mine.  

In a recent iPhone commercial one guy says he had a funnel cake that was 1400 calories and another guy says, “You know that’s not good.”  The first guy says, “It WAS good.  It was delicious.”  

Not as good as Grandma’s pączki.

I don’t eat that much candy.  Never really did.  I’ll give it up again this Lenten season, but I will always have some pączki.

The North Face Is Not Your Land

North Face makes good stuff.   The musical group My Morning Jacket is okay, too.  Together they came up with a commercial featuring Woody Guthrie’s great American song, “This Land is Your Land.”   While they might claim the best intentions, they totally miss the mark. Neither North Star nor My Morning Jacket seems to know what the song is supposed to be about.

It’s nice, of course, that the music group is donating proceeds from iTunes  to the 21st Century Conservation Service Corps, which in some way is connected to the Forest Service.   It's also nice that North Face is donating $250,000 to this effort.

If one reads Woody's autobiography, Bound for Glory, particularly his description of the Oklahoma and Texas oil boom towns, it's easy to see that he was indeed concerned about the environment and big oil's effect on it.  Still, that is not the focus of the song, and it certainly is not the focus portrayed in the commercial.


Guthrie wrote the piece as a rebuttal of Irving Berlin's "God Bless America."  As much as the NHL Philadelphia Flyers like Kate Smith's rendition of Berlin's song today, Woody tired of it quickly.  In fact, the earliest manuscripts show that the original title Guthrie had in mind was "God Blessed America."  Over time, Woody changed the title and verses, and as various recordings show,  he changed the wording several times.  But, it should be clear to only the most liberal of interpretations that any connection to an environmental meaning in tenuous at best.  Even more tenuous is the idea that North Face is in any way connected to the song.

A look at the entire video shows a vastly different America than the one Woody envisioned being made for you and me.   There are two people that one may assume are African Americans and as far as I can tell no Asians or Hispanics in the two minute movie.  Hardly the vision of diversity and equality that Guthrie's song really wants us to see America as.

The North Face sells gear.  And all of the gear that it sells, as depicted in the video, is for activities that mainly white people engage in.  Skiing,  climbing, and hiking are great, fun things to do and foster environmental awareness.  They are also very expensive.  They are not something that average Americans can even afford to to do.  In short, what The North Face is promoting in their commercial are things that privileged, rich people get to do.

The North Face is a brand that has become a status symbol in American suburbs, much the same way that Starter jackets and Nike Air Jordans were symbols of status and wealth.  It kind of makes the musical group's name ironic.  People who can afford to buy The North Face probably don't just have morning jackets.  They also have lunch, dinner, and smoking jackets.  If tuxedos had The North Face logo, they's probably buy them too.

The original version of the Guthrie song talks about private property and the relief offices of the depression era.  Guthrie understood that what truly divides us in this nation is not race or religion.  It's money that separates us.  That "private property" sign that Woody sees doesn't say anything on the other side.  The people who own the property can go anywhere.  The people who don't are restricted.  Woody was right in wondering if this land was made for all of us when he sees people in the relief offices.

The North Face simply wants people to buy their products.  I wonder, though, if the people who buy them know how much they are adding to that which divides us still.