Thursday, April 14, 2011

Old School Thursday: American Tragedy Edition

Today is National Pecan Day I’m pretty pleased about that. A) I like pecans and b) it is an absolute breath of fresh air that it’s not national spicy pecan day or national pecan cookie day or national pecans-chopped-up-into-little-bits day or anything more specific than simply National Pecan Day.

In other, more notable news, today is also the 99th anniversary of the day the Titanic struck the iceberg. The ship actually sank just after midnight, so tomorrow is the anniversary of that, but today is the anniversary of that final day on the ship.

In other sad news, today in 1939, John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath was published. It’s not really a book about food – more a book about not having food – but it certainly is a snapshot of a certain demographic during a certain period in American history. When I think about TGOW, though, I don’t really think about the Depression. Instead, I think about the summer before my sophomore year in high school, when I had to read the book. It was a pretty nice summer (most are, when you’re in high school and don’t have a job) and as a result, I’m pretty sure the book didn’t have the intended impact on me. Mostly, I just remember that it was boring and sad.

But I digress. Between the Titanic and the Joad family, it doesn’t seem all that appropriate to celebrate today. But maybe a pecan or two would be OK.

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