A Note About Aprons, or, Why I Sent John Edwards $19.53

I'm on a few presidential campaign email lists. The past few days the Edwards campaign has been doing a fundraising effort for John's birthday on June 10th. The carrot they are extending is those donating by his birthday will receive his mother's recipe for pecan pie. Today they threw in an extra incentive, a video of Joe Trippi and Jonathan Prince baking the pie (see www.johnedwards.com/recipe). Of course, hilarity ensues. I found the video hokey but ended up sending them $19.53 (the year Edwards was born, other suggestions are $6.10 or $54.00) because:

1) I do not currently have a good recipe for pecan pie.
2) The apron Trippi is wearing is the same general color as mine except mine is stained from repeated use and faded from repeated washings; his looks pretty new and one suspects it was purchased solely for the video. Also, his apron is a half apron, tieing just around the waist and as you can tell from the stain on his white or pale shirt at the end of the video that really isn't good enough. Mine is a full apron, attaching around the neck as well as the waist. But they are both blue aprons.
3) Initially I thought this kitschy video was too kitschy with the stereotypic male floundering while trying to cook. In fact they let the pie burn because they aren't watching the clock and apparently are unaware that most ovens have timers. However, when I came home this evening I put dinner on (a 3 pan + microwave meal) and sat down to go through the mail. The new New Yorker came today and I got caught up in the review of two new books on Hillary Clinton. So engrossed, in fact, that my pesto sauce scorched. So, maybe it's not so kitschy.

This post is not an indication that I endorse Edwards for president. It does indicate that I want a pie recipe and now have this shared apron color thing going on with Trippi. However, it should be noted that I adore Elizabeth Edwards and have a hard time turning down requests that come in under her email, even though I know they were probably written by someone else.