Reminder to Self

[akirlu]

I will not say anything insensitive to people with ashes on their foreheads tomorrow. I will not say anything insensitive to people with ashes on their foreheads tomorrow. I will not...

Hmm. Maybe I'll make pancakes for dinner tonight. Swedish pancakes, with lingonberries and whipped cream.

Comments

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

What might be an example of something insensitive one might withhold from saying to people with ashes on their foreheads tomorrow?

I would like to join you in this rare moment of tact and discretion.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Well, it mostly comes down to not telling people they have schmutz on their face when it's a dot of ash on the forehead. It's not hugely insensitive, I grant, but it does show you're not paying attention.

[seawasp]

Well, or you're simply unaware of the practice, which describes me up through my 20s.

[daveon.livejournal.com]

Technically, it's meant to be a cross... which shows that thumb painting with ashes is about as accurate as finger painting in spilled beer.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

I have had my Swedish pancakes already. I would like to have had semlor.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

I had semlor in Swedish class yesterday, one of my fellow students baked and we did assemble-your-own-semlor around the seminar table while discussing the third episode of the Swedish series "Torka aldrig tårar utan handskar" (fascinating but very sad story of two guys who meet and fall in love in Stockholm in the early-mid 1980s just as the AIDS crisis was really blooming in Sweden). They were not the world's most brilliant semlor, but I didn't have to bake them myself which is a plus. I'm still thinking I may (scandalously) make some this weekend, which is of course Wrong because it will be Lent by then, but fuggit. We also learned in class that these days you can get semlor year 'round in Sweden, and in December you can get saffron-semlor for Lucia, which is Wrongity Wrong McWrongigle.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

Semlor year round? Scandalous!

I hope someone brings semlor this evening to class, but I am fairly sure no one will think of it.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

I was wrong! Someone did! Jag känner mig lite svensk nu!

[jophan.livejournal.com]

Yes, semlor the year around. And they have started to appear with vaniljsås filling instead of mandelmassa and blueberry cream and any number of grotesquely heretical (and somewhat pointless) variants. In Finland, the rage since a number of years, is raspberry jam instead of mandelmassa. Sigh.

However, it has been a long time since they were only eaten on Shrove Tuesday. At least since 40 years back the traditional season has been from Shrove Tuesday and every Tuesday for the rest of the Lent.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Does sort of demonstrate that the Swedes have not been much bothered with observing Lent for some time now...

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

whoops Here I was all ready to cross-link you.

[dragonet2.livejournal.com]

Thank you, for catching me before I said something stupid. I think pancakes for dinner (crepes) would be great.

[wild-patience.livejournal.com]

As one of tomorrow's ash wearers (although it will be an evening Mass after work), I thank you. In my experience, though, people who tell you you have some dirt on your forehead either are unaware that it is Ash Wednesday (but know the significance of it) or are totally unaware of it. My hubby grew up mystified by seeing that on the calendar. A good Jewish boy, he had no idea what it was. I work with so many people from other countries (mostly non-Christian) that I would not take offense at someone's query.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Yes, well, in my case it's just a matter of not normally paying a blind bit of attention to the liturgical year, but having actually noticed today that it's Shrove Tuesday I am trying to anticipate what comes next so as not to stick my foot in it. I have actually blithely suggested that someone check the mirror for the smudge on their face, rather than inquiring as to its significance, and it's a faut pas I'd rather avoid if I can.

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

Thoughtful. ;-)

And a reminder for me to not even think bad thoughts. I know these people are SUFFERING so from the soon-loss of their spiritual leader.

[jophan.livejournal.com]

You prefer lingonberry too? Everyone eats them with blueberry or strawberry jam, but I prefer lingonberry myself, just as with oven pancakes.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

I'm actually pretty catholic in my tastes with respect to pancake fillings. I like most jams, including the ones you mention, or drottningssylt, or cloutberry (hjortron), and even just with a bit of butter and sugar and no fruit or whipped cream at all, like the Norwegians eat their lefse, but lingon seem peculiarly Swedish to me as a filling. Also, I have a ginormous bucket of lingonberries from IKEA to use up.

[mac-arthur-park.livejournal.com]

*g* I DARE someone to ask me what I'm giving up for Lent.

That being said, I think pancakes sound like a smashing idea for breakfast.