Friday, December 4, 2009

Canned Religion



Spend enough time squinting and deciphering stains and burns thought to resemble iconic faces and forms and the stories start to get a bit humdrum. Such is the case with this recent Virgin Mary pancake from Glendale, Arizona, made by Bianca Lopez the day before Thanksgiving, according to this ABC 15 report. Short story made shorter: Lopez made a batch of flapjacks for her family and the last one featured a shape that she recognized immediately. This visual manifestation has delivered to Lopez the requisite “peace and comfort” and it is now in her freezer for the sake of posterity. End of story.

But for me the real revelation has been learning about the existence of Batter Blaster. Apparently, folks, including Lopez, spray pancake batter from a can. I guess this really shouldn’t come as a surprise because if you can squeeze cheese (or some semblance thereof) from a can squeeze pretty much anything from a can, right? Cheese is a bit more complex to make than pancakes, however. I’ve always been appalled by the idea of pancake mix, so this pressurized version of the stuff really puts me off, even if it is organic.

Of course, there isn't a boring story in Madonna of the Toast, which does include a papal pancake!

3 comments:

Rosemarie said...

Hi, just found your website and thought you might be interested in a picture of Spongebob Squarepants in a sweet potato.

It was nearly a year ago, I was eating some slices of sweet potato and noticed that one of them had a strange pattern in it, that bore an uncanny resemblance to Spongebob. I photographed it with my cell phone; here are the (kinda blurry) pictures:

http://home.earthlink.net/~jamesms4/spongebob1.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~jamesms4/spongebob2.jpg

(Unfortunately, my good image editing software went with my last computer and this new one has a crappy program that can't make the pictures any clearer. If you can improve the quality of the images, feel free.)

Anyway, my first thought on seeing the "face" was, Can I sell this thing on eBay somehow? But I knew a mushy piece of cooked sweet potato wouldn't survive long enough for such a transaction, and if I froze it the "face" might get disfigured. So I put it in a plastic baggie and stuck it in my fridge, figuring I would consider what to do with it. But then I forgot all about it and it got lost in there. A week later, I found it all squished and green-molded so I threw it out.

Now all I have are the photos; too bad I couldn't make a buck out of it. I don't think anyone would have wanted to buy it anyway, since AFAIK there are no Spongebob worshippers out there. :-) I'm a practicing Catholic, BTW, but I don't give much credence to "sightings" of Christ and the saints in food or stains on the wall.

Anyway, hope you like the picture. It's not a perfect image of Spongebob since the nose points the wrong way. But it's actually clearer than some alleged "images" of the Blessed Virgin in food, so I guess it passes muster.

Rosemarie

Buzz said...

Yes, you have to squint a bit but I can see Spongebob in the sweet potato. It's fascinating how we see these commercial emblems the same as religious icons, definitely a media-driven phenomenon, along with the idea that people can make a quick buck selling these visual manifestations on eBay.

Thanks for sharing, Rosemarie!

Unknown said...

Jan 9, 2010: Hey you guys, you would not believe this--Today I was clearing dishes from dinner and there looking up at me from this used dinner plate was the perfect image of Jesus. The plate had a steak and A1 sauce in it and now you clearly see this pic, it's weird, spooky. It just happened today, so I need to find someone who can take a pic of it for me so I can start to circulate it or maybe sell it on ebay, but what I want to know is how do I go about finding anyone who can and will appreciate this kind of thing or maybe want to keep it? I thought Buzz might know. Pls help. I'm at denisemaybrown@hotmail.com. Thanks everyone, I will post a pic just as soon as I can get one!