Sunday 6 March 2011

so I guess december is a midnight snack ...


Sam's random texts are among my favorite moments in the day. His choice of topic ranges from Aqua Velva to 100 Years of Solitude to his latest, somewhat puzzling question: What month is brunch? I took a moment to ponder this one (which goes to show you how easily distracted I am -- happy to shelve a story outline problem to contemplate something utterly ridiculous) and the pondering took on a life of its own, and here we are.

So, if the year is seen as a waking day, and if brunch is between breakfast and lunch, but tending towards lunch, then I suppose that brunch would be somewhere in late spring. May, let's say. Does that work?

What other connotations does brunch have? There is a festive quality to it, I think. It's a weekend thing, so no work is associated with the day. And it's a bigger than usual meal, with foods you do not get regularly. Bacon, pancakes, maybe roast beef and pie if you go out to a restaurant. You look forward to it all the way there. You might even dress up for it -- a colorful sweater for no real reason. Sounds like May, doesn't it -- at least in southern Ontario. The first really warm day is one of the true treats of a 4-season climate. No day in the San Diego calendar makes as many people happy as the first really warm day up here.

And this is where the May-brunch analogy breaks down. Brunch, like all festivals, has a downside, a dark aftermath stemming from excess. The day after your birthday finds you hungover and grumpy and a full year older than you were the day before. You wouldn't want another birthday any more than you want a fourth plate of roast beef. But who wouldn't want more May?

And now, if you'll excuse me, I have an outline to finish before Sam texts again.

3 comments:

Sandra Love said...

May definitely works. The cherry blossoms would be out by then surely. When was the last time you had a festive dessert, like Cherry Pie and Bacon at the same event? You paint the picture of a wonderful day.

Sand

p.s. Do you remember looking to see if you got a cherry in your fruit salad as a kid?

Richard Scrimger said...

Do I? Though we called it fruit cocktail, as I remember. Ah, alcoholic childhood ...

Anonymous said...

Right, fruit cocktail. Then they added extra cherries to spare our parents the stress. I remember it was a special day if the can of evaporated milk came out.
Sand