Figure 1 – Alligator bread. IPhone photograph. (c) DE Wolf 2016.

“She’s as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the NIle,” is one of the famous malapropisms from Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s (1751-1816) wonderful play “The Rivals, 1775.” He [on the other hand] is “the very pineapple of politeness.” Dear, Mrs. Malaprop, where is she now when we poor souls need her so very much?

Anyway, whenever I hear the word “alligator,”  “allegory” springs to mind in its steed (neigh stead).

And so that is what I thought about this morning after “Super Tuesday” when I spotted the little French-bred [sic] alligator or allegory of Figure 1 at the local bakery. Clearly it was sculpted lovingly with children in mind. But we are all children at heart. Or as Mrs. Malaprop herself said: Oh! it gives me the hydrostatics to such a degree.”