Forty years to the day that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was fell by an assassin’s bullet. Only in recent years has more attention been paid to the work he did in showing the plight of the poor and speaking of the injustices that got us into Vietnam, but of course his work on race relations transcends any superlatives that anyone could hope to attach to it. On that somber note, let’s play the friday5.org Friday Five.

(Gee, talk about an uncomfortable segue …)

1. Where can you get some really good pancakes?
Mom used to make great pancakes from scratch, as did Dad (although he tended to make them only at night for our "breakfast-as-dinner" meals), but ever since Fast Shake came out, that’s been the standard in this house. When I get the craving for pancakes these days, I’m usually stuck going to IHOP (which only came to Toledo a few years ago, strangely enough).

2. How do you like your pancakes?
Normally with just a bit of margarine and syrup, but since I’ve been going to IHOP I’ve tended to get their fruit pancakes.

3. What’s your theory on why restaurant waffles are so much more expensive than pancakes?
Lack of demand, I’d guess. Either that, or they’re much more time-consuming to make because of specialized equipment. Besides, as everyone who has watched MST3k‘s treatment of Viking Women Versus the Sea Serpent knows, waffles rule the world.

4. The pancake chef is going whip up a batch of the most interesting, creative pancake invention you can imagine. What will you order?
Probably something more familiar and comforting to me. I’m not in the mood to experiment with my food right now.

5. When was the last time someone made you pancakes, not counting visits to restaurants?
I honestly cannot remember; it would have had to have been before I went vegetarian, which was back in 1992. Egads.