#49 "Hare of the Dog" January 5, 2012 In Color!

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Obviously, Easter is not about hares, rabbits, or bunnies. However, the Easter Bunny is not an American invention conjured up by some Ad Man down on Madison Avenue to move vast quantities of chocolate and cheap wicker baskets. I wholeheartedly thought it was until I read the Easter Bunny Wikipedia article, which I strongly suggest reading. It's fascinating. If you don't want to read it, here's a quick overview: Originating among German Lutherans, the Easter Hare originally played the role of a judge, evaluating whether children were good or disobedient in behavior at the start of the season of Eastertide. Yes, Eastertide is a real thing, as is Christmastide, but I will not be going into these things here today. The German Lutherans brought this tradition to the Dutch region of Pennsylvania when they moved to America in the early 18th century. The hare would lay eggs, colored in various colors, mostly red (to symbolize the blood of Christ ) and green (to symbolize the new growth of the spring). So this tradition of a rabbit that lays eggs goes back as far, if not further back than Santa Claus. I am happy to tell you all that this is incredible news to me, as I totally thought the Easter Bunny was older than me by a decade or two. I always think that the commodification of holidays is a strictly American phenomenon, but it has been going on for centuries! Granted, when the early German Lutherans were coming up with this folklore, they weren't selling anything, but were merely coming up with interesting stories to tell their children and trick them into being good, so that they would eat the leftover eggs that were forbidden during Lent. Tricky adults. I am always interested in finding out how traditions like this are started and I am usually more excited when they were not concocted in a boardroom by a bunch of stuffed shirts. Think about it. Modern versions of this kind of storytelling and tradition never catch on; take for an example, the holiday known as "Festivus." This is a holiday that was created by the family of one of the writers on Seinfeld, and then turned into a full episode in which Jerry and his friends decide to make a holiday that went against the extreme consumerism of the Christmas season. Yes, people in certain circles celebrate this holiday, and during the holiday season at the bar, you can always hear a couple of smart-alecs saying "Happy Festivus!" after also saying "HappychannukahMerryChristmasandHappyKwanza." But my point is, is there's no Festivus Clown that shimmies through the radiator to deliver fresh foie gras to good boys and girls. And, although Festivus does in fact, have a couple of "traditions," it is an extremely niche holiday celebrated by a couple of fanatics of the show, Seinfeld. I can't even think of a modern equivalent of the Easter Bunny. It is a rare thing to even have a new holiday. Much less a new holiday mascot. Most new holidays are in memorandum, and it would be insane to have a mascot for these holidays. And there are plenty of holidays with no mascot, or one that isn't particularly memorable or commoditized. I am thinking of one of my favorite holidays, New Years Eve and New Years Day. The mascot of this is Old Man Time, and the New Years Baby who wears the sash displaying the new year on it. But that tradition is being lost, at least in this country, by all these dropping balls. I think that is because that particular holiday is mostly for adults and they don't intrinsically care for mascots in their holidays. They no longer believe in the children-oriented mascots because they themselves have become these mascots, and act as Santa and the Easter Bunny, staying up after the kids have gone to bed putting out all the gifts and such. The sense of magic that these mascots create for children is lost at a certain age. I think future generations should make mascots for all of the holidays. I think Chris Columbus should sail across the sky in a magical Nina-Pinta-Santa Maria Super ship dropping blankets, medical supplies and booze to unsuspecting adults while they sleep on Columbus Day Eve. I want the New Years Bum to cure all of the hangovers with giant pancakes and Bloody Marys. I want a giant winged Uncle Sam to give out fireworks on the third of July in preparation for the Fourth. And so on and so on until the adults are as excited about the holidays as the kids are. Because after all, why should youth be wasted on the young?

#49 "Hare of the Dog" January 5, 2012

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The last post was about Thanksgiving, and not even at the restaurant. This piece was started on Easter Sunday 2011 while I was working the bar during Easter brunch behind the bar. However, this post is not about Easter; maybe next time. It started with the Easter Bunny in the suit on the left hand side of the drawing. The second bunny was the one on the far right who probably got hit by a bus, or grew up in the Proctor & Gamble factory. The former was colored in with red wine and the latter was colored in with blue ballpoint pen and bitters. Both would be eventually colored in Photoshop. Tim and I then decided that we would just do an entire piece of all different kinds of rabbits, bunnies, and hares. It took us a couple months to finish it though, so it sat around the restaurant collecting stains and going through a couple different incarnations.

The term "Hair of the Dog" is a colloquial expression in the English language predominantly used to refer to alcohol that is consumed with the aim of lessening the effects of a hangover. According to Wikipedia, the term dates back to the times of Billy Shakes and has also been recorded as being uttered in numerous countries. Of course, this method of boozing to kill a hangover seems to work for a while, although it really is just delaying the inevitable. I use this method during the weekend though, and will regularly have a Bloody Mary with brunch to help ease a particularly troublesome brain pain. When I was a kid, you couldn't pay me to eat or drink anything with tomato as it's base. But I still remember my first Bloody Mary. I was 21 years old and I was on Cape Cod visiting friends. We had gotten a room at a motel in Truro because my friends weren't allowed back in West Dennis after a rather insane summer the previous year. We went out in Provincetown the night before and had a crazy night full of booze and carrying on only to wake up groggy and hung out to dry the next morning/afternoon. We went to breakfast and my friends ordered some Bloody Marys. I expressed my disgust at the very thought of tomato-based concoctions, but when my friends' beverages appeared, they looked like the most refreshing things on the planet Earth. Salted rims, lemon wedges, supple ice cubes, and trunks of celery stalks reaching for the clear blue skies. I couldn't resist. I ordered one, and then one more, and then we were back. The rest of the day is inconsequential (although I'm sure it was pretty fun), but the thought of my first Bloody Mary will live on in my mind forever, or until I forget about it. I can't remember my first glass of milk, my first soda, my first gin and tonic. Some of these drinks have been memorable, and some hold special memories themselves, but remembering the first one is impossibly hard to place. I remember my first beer, and the first beer that actually got me intoxicated, but other than that, and the Bloody Mary, I really can't remember any of my "first drinks." Everyone has these stories about food and drink that made an impression on them at some point of their lives. I even remember the day that I actually appreciated tomatoes after an entire childhood of sticking my nose up at them. In fact, the discovery of tomatoes and Bloody Marys are only a couple summers apart. These revelations of culinary discovery are strange and interesting because they show you that even something as remedial as eating, which for so much of human history has been simply to survive, can be wondrous and exciting. I am talking about a breakfast beverage, and not even a particularly exciting one, and yet it had this profound effect on my memory. Sometimes, I guess, it's not about what you are eating or drinking, but when, where and why that really makes the event meaningful to your life. Think about the first guy that ate an oyster and didn't die. What a treat! And the gal who ate the first batch of non-poisonous mushrooms. Scary and life altering! I bet you those people remember the exact day that they discovered these culinary delights and they probably invited their friends back for seconds.