Shrove Tuesday (late)

[Betsy Stine <BSTINE@MECN.MASS.EDU>]

I was out of commission for awhile and could not send or reply to messages
because of some crazy glitch in the "driveway"
that leads to my entrance to the info hiway.  Anyway, enough blather.  You
probably have received all you care to know about Fat Tuesday (Mardi gras)
or whatever we want to call it, whoever it was who posted the request.
Nonetheless, I must share this:  A charming little village in Buckinghamshire,
England, called Olney (interestingly where the poet William Cowper and the
rector/hymnist John Newton lived and worked, and where the  hymn Amazing
Grace was written) has, for hundreds of years, sponsored a "pancake race"
on Shrove Tuesday.  Village women race down the High Street (Main St. to
us Yanks) with a frying pan containing a pancake.  They have to flip it
into the air as they race.  This has probably fostered the tradition of
serving pancakes on this day, which, as you know, is the day before the
Lenten season begins.  This is wordy, but I love this little village, and
I had to share this info.  I think, however, that this is not the only
village where this event takes place.  Betsy Stine Danvers (MA) High.