There Goes the Gingerbread Neighborhood

A gingerbread home with candy trim.

Two gingerbread houses. One side.

Gingerbread houses with candy thatched roofs. The other side.

Birds-eye view of gingerbread homes, with a marshmallow snowman, ice cream cone trees, and a sleigh with candy cane runners. Notice the shadow that the sleigh projects.

A pair of gingerbread houses were bulldozed today to the dismay of the talented craftsman and craftswoman who created them. It was a case of eminent domain involving counter space. Their demolition does not detract from the feats of engineering and ingenuity that they represented. On a separate but related note, gingerbread houses always remind me of a fairy tale: "When they approached the little house, they saw that it was built of bread and covered with cakes, but that the windows were of clear sugar. ... Hansel reached up above, and broke off a little of the roof to try how it tasted, and Gretel leant against the window and nibbled at the panes. Then a soft voice cried from the parlor: 'Nibble, nibble, gnaw. Who is nibbling at my little house?'"