Man throws free pancake party for neighborhood to make friends: ‘My wife says I’m getting weird’

‘Even if you don’t like to eat pancakes, you just like the idea of them. Being around pancakes feels good, even if you’re not eating them yourself.’

Curtis Kimball faced a conundrum that many adults these days are painfully familiar with. “I just don’t know how grown-ups make friends,” the 43-year-old explained to The Washington Post. With the pandemic exhausting all—if any—opportunities of meeting new people and forming lasting bonds, Kimball decided to get creative in his quest to forge adult friendships. “I don’t mind looking foolish,” he shared. “So, I was like, ‘I bet I could just put myself out there and maybe something would happen.’” For Kimball, putting himself out there meant throwing a pancake party for his neighborhood, where he has lived for about a year with his wife and two daughters.

Everybody in my life thought I was insane,” he revealed. “It’s a pretty vulnerable feeling to do something that outlandish in public.” Why pancakes? Kimball’s reasoning was simple: “Even if you don’t like to eat pancakes, you just like the idea of them. Being around pancakes feels good, even if you’re not eating them yourself.” Also, he added, “if you see someone making pancakes for strangers, you’d probably think that person is nice“ – – – keep reading

Wrestling the Angel

One day, during the 12 years I spent living in India as a missionary, I read about 200 girls attending a renaming ceremony. They all had been given a single name, Nakusa (also spelled Nakoshi or Nakusha). Unwanted.

In many places, men are the wage earners, the ones with strong names that endure. Women are the unwanted, with dowries upon their heads and scars upon their hearts. But in that single renaming ceremony, 200 girls took on new names. Aishwarya. Puja. Shruti. Wealth. Worship. Revelation.

I wonder if they had the strength to leave behind the labels they had carried for so long. I hope so. There is such power in language, such power in naming—to clarify and create and give credence… or to cast away and objectify and demean – – – keep reading

I always have my inspiration glasses on in my everyday life,” says the Swedish creative consultant Sebastian Bergström, who can reel off a long list of people, places and media that have influenced the charming, cheerful interiors of his apartment in Stockholm  – – – keep reading