Now, I may be educationally impaired when it comes to these things, but I’m reasonably sure that pine trees do not grow in Antarctica. But maybe when Pancake exclaims to Pep, “I may be crazy, but I think those are Christmas trees!” they have made it from Antarctica to an evergreen forest somewhere. I’m not sure. The storyline doesn’t say anything about it.

But here’s where I think a backpack for Pep the fish would be useful. She’s a fish. On the land. Maybe she’s a lungfish? At any rate, I believe that a backpack with oxygenated water and tube would be useful for Pep.

I’m also reasonably sure there are no pine trees underneath the ocean near Antarctica.

I am, of course, ready to admit that I may be wrong! If any of my readers can think of a reason why Pancake and Pep might have encountered Christmas trees on their journey, please feel free to leave a comment!

Have you planted a tree for Holidailies 2022?

The Episcopal Advent calendar for today (for Prayer) reads: “Pray along with the Collect for Advent 2, found on page 211 of The Book of Common Prayer. As you are out and about for the rest of this week, notice the people you pass. Ask God to bless them in their lives and work. See how this changes the way you go about your week.” I have difficulty praying along with passages from the Book of Common Prayer, even though it is, as its very title implies, a prayer book. Most of the prayers are meant to be prayed during Mass, led by a priest. I’ll do my best, though, and see how things shift in the next few days.

Today is Day 5 of the Journey of Pancake the Penguin, whose sister is a fish and who is on a quest for a magical chest that will give her the power of flight on Christmas Day. So what does the adopted sister and best friend get on Christmas Day? I don’t know. Lungs, maybe. Or all the plankton she can eat.

But today, Pancake and Pep approach their mother to tell her that they are going on a quest. Their mother — who is wearing a scarf, as you can see in the photograph above — basically tells them, “Be careful”. Pancake and Pep promise that they’ll be careful. We’ll see what happens in tomorrow’s adventure.

Of course, I remember what “being careful” means when you’re a kid. I had these conversations with my own mom:

ME: I’m off to play in the vacant lot half a mile away with my friends!

MOM: Okay, be careful!

ME: [Immediately tries to create a hole in the dirt with firecrackers]

That really happened! Where we lived (I forget what ages we were) there was a huge vacant lot not too far away from our house. My friends and I would spend hours there, doing all kinds of things, because it wasn’t just a vacant lot! It had hills and holes and the ruins of an abandoned gas station and more! Naturally, this was heaven for an over-imaginative kid like me. I had this theory that there was a minotaur — yes, a minotaur, straight out of Grecian myth — that lived in a cave underneath the abandoned gas station and ate battery acid. I don’t know where I came up with that. I also remember looking out the window of my grandparents’ house and seeing the head of a minotaur moving across the skyline, but that may have been a dream (though it also explains my fondness for kaiju stories).

And yes, one day my friends and I decided we needed to deepen one of the holes in the vacant lot, so one of us brought a bunch of firecrackers because, hey, miners used explosions to dig holes, so we could as well. As far as I can recall, none of us lost our fingers. Nor did the hole really get much deeper. Experiment: Fail.

Pancake and Pep probably don’t play with firecrackers in the ocean, though, and not just because the firecrackers wouldn’t ignite. They are a good sister/sister pair and would never even ponder such an idea, now would they?

Blowin’ things up for Holidailies 2022!

Today’s message in the Episcopal Advent Calendar, centering on the “Go” stage in the way of love, is: “Read or watch your local news. Ask God to open your heart and eyes to ways you can promote reconciliation and healing in your community.”

Gotta think about that one. There are ways and ways to help out in the local community. I don’t mind sending money to the food bank, to the women’s shelter, and other charitable organizations in the area. I have an allergy to the idea of running for local office, though I’m sure I’d be able to counter the loonies who bust into school board meetings demanding that their children be taught that trees invented automobiles or something equally silly. I can write. I can volunteer. I can find all kinds of ways to help.

On Day Three of Pancake’s adventure, we meet her sister and best friend Pep. Pep is a fish, so apparently Pep is adopted, and Pep and Pancake have some sort of arrangement where Pancake doesn’t eat her.

This is a dramatic moment; you can tell because of the tilted angle of the photograph. This assembly is very fish-like.

Next, we also encounter the house that Pep lives in:

Again, I was not sure which wall of the house was the front, but I determined that the fish-shaped flap was the front door. Curiously, there’s no water pump or sign of anything that could support a fish’s above-ground lifestyle. Must be Magic. Hold on to your hats, because there’s more magic coming soon!

You know, I’ve always been intrigued by interspecies friendships and partnerships. From the lowly birds that clean a hippopotamus’s teeth to the fish that befriend the penguins, I find it fascinating. I am also a sucker for heart-warming tales of dogs and cats or deer and possums being snuggle buddies.

In this case, though, Pancake the Penguin has befriended Pep the Fish. This is interesting. It’s like naming your chicken or goat or whatever animal you plan on eating. Once you’ve named such an animal, you’ve shared a bond with it, and it’s hard to do the actual eating when the time comes. The fact that Pep is an adopted sister makes me think it’s Pancake’s mother who initiated the relationship and has passed it on to her daughter.

I could go on and on about the theoretical zoology that goes on behind the scenes of this tale, but I can tell that, biologically speaking, this story is just a disaster in the making.

Stay tuned!

Swimmin’ through Holidailies 2022!

Well, it’s the second day of December! Today we celebrate Friday, the number 2, and my Mom’s birthday! Happy birthday, Mom! I love you!

It’s also the second day of Pancake the Penguin’s journey. I learned by reading the enclosed materials that I had misgendered Pancake, who is actually a girl penguin and not a boy penguin. This is interesting to me. As a writer, I spend the occasional hour musing about the “default character”, who is not described or not named in a story or novel; introduce such a character, and the reader will almost always automatically assume the character is a white male of about middle age until further specific description is added. There are studies that have been done about this and if I were really inclined to I would find them and link to them.

So shame on me for assuming the same of Pancake.

At any rate, today was the day to build Pancake’s house. Here it is:

I learned that her house is kind of an orange-ish yellow color because it’s the color of pancake syrup, which is the second best thing in the world, second only to pancakes themselves. I think that’s the front door I’ve shown in this picture. No other exterior wall has a door in it.

Jennifer looked at it and said, “Of course it’s the front door! It’s penguin-shaped!” And so it is! Here’s Pancake standing beside the front door of her home:

As you can see, she does fit in that door! However, it does seem that the house is almost the same size as Pancake. When she is inside, she barely has room to turn around.

Still, it’s fascinating to me that penguins have houses and that some like breakfast foods. The things you learn when you engage with nature!

P.  S. Paper House is also the name of a pretty surreal movie that came out in 1989. Worth watching, if you can find it. My sources tell me it’s streaming on Amazon Prime for $2.99.

‘Tis a frozen day for Holidailies!