Denmark Journal: How the Danish Came to Be

How did Danish pastry come to be? Ordering a Danish was one of the first urban legends, the assumption being that the name originated with Denmark. It’s an example of the linguistic fallacy post hoc ergo propter hoc. Because one thing follows another does not mean that it has been caused by it. Long ago during the Mesozoic era, early ancestors of man came across two pastries sitting on a raised plate with a plastic covering. One was filled with cheese and the other let’s say apricot jam. NB: and this is true: Denmark is the only country which has done away with euphemisms like coffee and Diet Soda. When you walk into grocery stories, you find refrigerated cabinets marked simply “caffeine” (Not). Denmark became a country when the ancestors of the Danes sought a geographic identification for their newfound food. Mourning Becomes Electra is the title of the O’Neill play. Denmark was created to account for the Danish.

read the Kirkus review of The Kafka Studies Department by Francis Levy

and also read Joan Baum's NPR review of The Kafka Studies Department