More Pie (Day)!

We trust that everyone has enjoyed celebrating Pi(e) Day, 3/14, in a manner that best expresses their particular interests, whether in seeing how far they can get in reciting the digits of pi, or in seeing how far they can get with a fork, a spoon, a large apple pie, and several scoops of ice cream.


It has come to my attention that while 3/14 is technically National Pi Day, there is an actual National Pie Day, on January 23. This makes it 1/23, which was probably a deliberate choice on the part of the pie people, having to do with the "1, 2, 3, go" often associated with pie contests. Or maybe all the other dates were taken.


Regardless, we see no reason why pie cannot feature prominently on both days. Pie is, after all, an object that could be described as round, and therefore the pi of pie can be quite easily computed. Not by me, of course, but quite easily by someone else.


The Hero, who happens to be a math person who also appreciates pie, has suggested that we eat only round foods on Pi(e) Day, such as pizza, quiche, cookies, donuts, etc. We did not do that this year, but I believe it is an excellent suggestion for next year, so long as it is understood that "round" foods does not include "healthy" round foods. That would be decidedly un-pie-like.


For those of you who did not get enough pie trivia in the previous post, we offer some additional true or false questions here. 


1. America's favorite pie is apple, followed by pumpkin.


2. In the middle ages, when a young man wanted to ask for a young woman's hand in marriage, he would bring a pie to the young woman's father. If the proposal was acceptable, the father would turn the pointy end of a slice of pie toward the young man. 


3. If the proposal was NOT acceptable, the father would turn the pointy end of a knife toward the young man.


4. Pie was banned in England by Oliver Cromwell, who deemed it "a pagan form of pleasure."


5. Stargazy pie is the most disgusting pie ever created.




Answers (possibly made up)


1. True. Running a close third, according to one source, is "anything chocolate." 


2. False. But it's kind of a cool idea.


3. Probably not. But it's more believable than #2 for the times.


4. True. (The real reason his reign was kinda short.)


5. False. Incredibly, there is also Surprise Pie, supposedly favored by wealthy Englishpersons of yore, in which live creatures would pop out when the crust was cut. If this is what prompted Cromwell's ban on pie, it was obviously in the best interests of national security.


I leave this discussion of Pi(e) Day with a thought-provoking question. If the best part of the pie is the crust (and it is, according to a scientific survey of myself), why do we put all that other stuff in there anyway? Why not just have layers of buttery, flaky crust? And put the whipped cream or ice cream right on top of it?


Now THERE'S the type of story problem we all should have had in math class.