Happy Peep-ster, all you peeps out there

It’s not as if I’ll be heading out to the Easter Parade in my pastel topper, straw hat, and new patent-leather Mary Janes. It’s not as if I’m holding a backyard egg hunt. It’s not like I’ll be climbing a mountain for sunrise service.

Still, there’s something about an early Easter that I just plain don’t like.

But it’s Easter, and that means a late-middle-aged blogger’s fancy turns to Peeps.

Oh, it’s not quite the same as it used to be, given that Peeps aren’t just for Easter anymore. There almost always available, what with Christmas Peeps, St. Patrick’s Day Peeps, Halloween Peeps. But the yellow chick Peep, well, that original is still the greatest.

My favorite Peep-related event is the Washington Post’s annual Peeps Diorama Contest.

I am not a big fan of this year’s winner. And it’s not just the odious subject matter. I just don’t find “Trump 360” an especially fine or creative use of Peeps.

I thought the Adele concert, Shacklepeep’s Expedition – 100th anniversary, the Peeple’s Pope’s Visit, the Peep-inspired Day of the Dead were all a lot better and more interesting. (You can watch a slide show here.)

Entering the Wa-Po Peep-o-rama is on my small b-bucket list.

I will not go it alone. My peeps – i.e., my sisters – will need to be in it to win it with me.

We can wait and see what topical ideas shake out in the next 11 months. Or we can anticipate it by looking at what 2017 is the 100th anniversary of. (If we’d done it this year, we could have had something to do with Ireland’s Easter Rebellion. Michael Collins and Eamon DeValera.)

• In 1917, the US entered the War to End All Wars. Peeps in the trenches? Peeps Over There? Kind of a grim topic…
• T.S. Eliot’s Prufrock was published. Too obscure. The Wasteland would be better, but we’d have to wait until 2022. (“Hurry up please, it’s time.”)
• The Russian Revolution? A possibility. To The Finland Station! On the other hand, who wants to glorify Communism? And do they even make bright red Peeps?
• Better: Ella Fitzgerald was born. So were JFK, Dizzy Gillespie, and Arthur C. Clarke. I vote for Ella: “A Tisket, a Tasket.”

Of course, there’s more to the Kingdom of Peeps than the Washington Post’s dioramas.

There is, as my sister Kathleen discovered, when she unearthed a bit on Serious Eats devoted to Peepshi,“sushi” made out of – you guessed it – Peeps.

Something a little different as an appetizer before the ham or lamb. Something a little different as a dessert if you want to just say no to carrot cake. Maybe a little something to tuck into the Easter baskets of kids too jaded for jelly beans, Cadbury eggs, or just plain Peeps.

Ah, Peeps.

What would Easter be without them?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Peeps have been a recurrent Pink Slip theme. Here’s my 2013 post, with links to prior Peepish musings.