GIANT PIE COMEDY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20058, 22 September 1928, Page 2 (Supplement)

GIANT PIE COMEDY.

THREE-TQN MONSTER. REFUSAL TO LEAVE OVEN. CRANE BROUGHT TO AID. Dcnby Dale's three-ton pie resisted all efforts recently, says a London paper, to remove it from the very special oven which had been constructed to bake it. At first it responded most sympathetically to the efforts that were made to coax it from the cavern in which it had come to perfection, only to be cut into 20,000 portions to feed the facetious, if not famished, population, who were anxiously awaiting its complete advent. Tho Hope that something funny might happen was amply fulfilled, for the second portion—or half—it was difficult to judge such an immensity —turned crusty, as a pio should do, within reason. In other words, the pie stuck half in the oven. Jho other half was on the lorry which was intended to tour tho district with the whole pie. Some said that tho tackle employed was too weak to move the pio; others

iconoclasts—that the crust had really broken. This latter insinuation greatly annoyed the massed housewives of Yorkshire who had been responsible for the pie from its beginning. The housewives of Yorkshire contended that they could bake pies. "Yes," retorted a member of the crowd; "if they don't weigh more than a ton!" The pie had been baking all through the livelong night, so that perhaps it was not inappropriate that it took nearly two houre to get it out of the oven and that mounted police had to control the crowd. But none of this excitement infused itself into the pic—its two stone of baking powder—which continued to sag and droop and to droop and sag. And the front area of the pie continued to get cold and distant and distant and cold. Then the horrible truth came out before tho pic. No allowance had been made for expansion! Alas, the housewives! Chains were used and crowbars, which bent nnder the strain. As a last, desperate resort, a message was sent to a local mine, asking for the loan of a crane to shift tho pie. In the end, however, it was duly served on special souvenir plates. The occasion was a carnival in aid of tho Huddersfield Infirmary, and nobody can say that the pie was the least attraction.