Dear Kid,

Several years ago, you began a campaign for us to build a fire pit. Your approach was to chant “Fire Pit, Fire Pit, Fire, Fire, Fire Pit” at various intervals. (NOTE: this is a good indication that you should stick with your planned major and not transfer to marketing.) Fast forward to us eventually buying a fire pit and enjoying lots of wonderful evenings with sparking logs and s’mores. (Hmmm…maybe you are good at marketing after all…)

Since I thoroughly addressed the issue of the mythology of fire (by “thoroughly” I mean “to my satisfaction”) a while ago, I thought perhaps a review of fire building techniques might be interesting. Then I decided it sounded like a page out of the most boring manual imaginable. So you will have to research fire building options on your own–at least for the time being.

I thought about writing a post about the various meals one can make over an open fire. Then I realized A) there is very little that can’t be made over an open fire (see The Guide to Fire Cooking written by Joe the Neanderthal on cave walls 7 zillion years ago) and B) perhaps I am not the right person to write a cooking blog given my history of 50/50 burning things to a crisp versus decent meals.

Writing about college mascots seemed like a good idea. (It’s been a while since I wrote The Importance of College Mascots, Mascot History, and Why Are Mascots Male?)  So I thought, there has to be a school with the mascot Fire, right? Wrong. Extinguisher? Nope. I found 3 mascots named Sparky (Arizona State Sun Devils, Liberty University Flames, and the Illinois-Chicago Flames), 4 named Blaze (Alverno College Inferno, U of Alabama at Birmingham dragon, SUNY Cortland red dragon, and U of Texas at Arlington maverick), 1 Scorch (Minnesota State University), and 1 Smokey (a coonhound not a bear, mascot for the Tennessee Volunteers). And a plethora of unusual mascot and mascot names that I shall have to address in a post sometime in the not too distant future.

Tonight is a home football game against Middletown. Our #1 Kicker (correction: #99, but number one in our hearts) will be back on the field, ponytail flying as she trots out for PATs and whatever else they have her do. There are new rules for students cheering in the student section (to prevent additional pieces of railing from breaking off and giving the EMTs something interesting to do). Hopefully everyone will still have fun.

Love, Mom