It is Sunday, April 16.  Happy Easter!  There are only 221 days until Thanksgiving, so get started on your pies.  Today we remember the birthdays of John Luyken, Caleb Blood Smith and Jimmy Osmond.  On this day in 1705 Queen Anne of England knighted Isaac Newton at Trinity College, in 1900 the US Post Office issued the first books of postage stamps and in 1972 the giant pandas Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing arrived in the US from China.  In Denmark it is Queen Margrethe’s Birthday, in Puerto Rico it is Jose De Diego’s Birthday and in the US it is National Orchid Day and National Eggs Benedict Day.

As I mentioned, today is Easter.  I am still puzzled by this whole Easter thing.  Not the true meaning of Easter, but the rest of the stuff.  What gets me is how we went from a religious holiday to one where rabbits distribute eggs and candy.  In past years I have discussed the connection, tenuous as it may be, of the eggs to the holiday.  I still am not sure about rabbits and their connection to giving out colored eggs.  I also noticed this year that we are seeing a bigger push to include toys in our Easter baskets.  I always thought that Easter was a holiday for bad teeth and the threat of diabetes.  I was not aware that toys had become part of the deal.  Toys used to be just for birthdays and Christmas (only 253 days away, incidentally) and now we have added another holiday.  Before you know it we will be buying toys for Arbor Day … but I digress

The other thing that has always made me wonder is why we have to hide the eggs.  I have done some research, but I have not found the connection to Easter.  The egg hunt is considered a game during which decorated eggs are hidden for children to find.  Real dyed hard-boiled eggs, plastic ones filled with chocolates or jelly beans or foil-wrapped egg-shaped chocolates are hidden in various places.  When some hunts are over, prizes may be given for various achievements such as the largest number of eggs collected or the most eggs of a specific color.  In South German folk tradition, it was customary to add extra obstacles by placing the eggs in hard-to-reach places among nettles and thorns. Yeah, nothing says Easter Egg Hunt like precarious hiding places and a trip to the ER.

In a recent newspaper article (yes I actually read a newspaper) I read about a big drug bust that was made at a truck inspection station along one of the highways that run through my state.  They were quite proud of having captured this huge shipment of drugs and made a big deal out of it.  I think it was a good thing; however, I do see a problem.  These inspection and weigh stations are not always open.  So if you are trying to move drugs, all you have to do is wait until later in the day, when the station closes or on weekends when they are not open and you can move your cargo with impunity.  It just seems to me that if you can have that kind of effect on the drug trade, it would be a wise idea to have these places open all the time.  I am sure that if that one truck had a large shipment of drugs, others do, too.  How cool would it be to catch more of them!  

Recently, my Barbara’s daughter and her family came up to NJ from South Carolina to visit.  As part of their NJ experience I took them down the shore.  First, I had to explain the whole “down the shore” thing to them.  They talk about going to the beach.  I explained that here in NJ you go to the beach, too, but first you have to go down the shore.  Once there, you go to the beach.  I am not sure they quite understood, but they politely nodded their heads so that I would stop going on about it.  Anyway, we went to my favorite place down the shore and went for a walk on the boardwalk.  They said that they have nothing like our boardwalks down in South Carolina.

One of our stops on the boardwalk tour was a stand where a guy fries just about anything you can think of.  I had my favorite choice – the fried peanut butter and banana sandwich.  They also got fried pickles and fried cookie dough.  I saw a couple things on the menu that I will need to go back and try.  One of the items is fried bacon-wrapped Oreos.  In the past I have also had fried chocolate covered bacon.  What could be bad about that – it has chocolate and bacon and it is fried.

They enjoyed the day, had a chance to walk on the beach and to view a few of the sights that are unique to the boardwalk.  If you want to do some serious people watching, that is the place to go.  Of course it was early in the season and the really good specimens were not out yet.  We didn’t see any of the 200 pound girls in size six bathing suits or the old white guys in their Speedos, but there were some interesting sights.  I saw one girl that had enough piercings that if the wind was right she could have sounded like a wind chime.  In any event, everyone had a good day and it was a good way to cap off their visit.

This week our fact tells us that before Mickey Mouse, Felix the Cat was the most popular cartoon character.  How crazy that a mouse chased a cat for a change.