Danny, we want pizza!

“Danny We Want Pizza!!” Deborah Root Short posted this family kitchen photograph on March 25, 2010 and tagged me. The dough is caught in midair above an outstretched hand, while two people pose in the foreground. It preserves the part of pizza night that happens before there is anything to slice.

My reply was that it reminded me I needed to try tossing some dough again soon. Then came a family request: would Uncle Danny make a pizza? “oh for sure,” I answered. Another comment joked that dropping a few pies was part of learning to make them fly.

The picture stops at the toss. There is no finished pizza to inspect, but the conversation supplies the rest of this memory: a little practice, a little teasing, and people ready to put in an order.