Comments & Curiosities:

Do you like pancakes? Of course you do. Who doesn’t like pancakes? That’s crazy talk.

What about pumpkins? I like pumpkins. Aside from being chubby little orange things that were invented for no reason but to make you smile, pumpkins mean fall, and fall means cool weather, football, turning leaves, Halloween and of course, most importantly, the Yankees and the World Series.

But here is the deal. If you like pancakes and pumpkins, you’re gonna love the “Pumpkins & Pancakes Children’s Halloween Extravaganza” 8 to 11 a.m. Oct. 25 at South Coast Plaza.

What is the significance of that day? As it turns out, Oct. 25 is my birthday (no gifts please, cash only) along with Helen Reddy, Pablo Picasso, Johann Strauss and Heather Klein, which means that Oct. 25 is a great day for “Pumpkins & Pancakes,” which is a fun, family-focused fundraiser for CASA, which is short for Court Appointed Special Advocates.

For more than 24 years, the totally dedicated volunteers at CASA have served as mentors and advocates for children in Orange County’s foster care system. Dedicated? I’ll give you dedicated. Every year, CASA volunteers spend more than 70,000 hours working with more than 800 disadvantaged kids, which is a lot of hours and a lot of kids.

Next Sunday, the Macy’s Home Store wing at South Coast Plaza will positively percolate with pancakes and pumpkins to say nothing of kids. And we’re not talking about those run-of-the-mill garden-variety pancakes that your uncle is so proud of except no one can understand why. We’re talking about a first-cabin gourmet pancake breakfast from Plums Café.

Have you been to Plums on 17th Street in Costa Mesa? You haven’t? I hope you’re joking. If you travel the country, then the world, then the solar system, even the galaxy maybe, you will not find a breakfast that holds a candle to Plums. Their Dutch Baby? Wait. Just give me a minute. I’m OK. Let’s go on.

Beyond the breakfast, Pumpkins & Pancakes is a whirlwind of kids’ activities, entertainers, an animal show, a silent auction and a full-on costume contest. I actually have a history with Pancakes & Pumpkins that precedes the CASA connection.

When our kids were kids, my wife put long hours into costumes for my daughter in the annual Halloween bash at South Coast Plaza, culminating in her “Poor Cinderella” costume, which took the grand prize that year (whew).

I judged the costume contest a few times when I was in the mayor biz, culminating in my having to be escorted to my car, and six years ago I took first place in the Pudgy-Has-Been- Former-Italian-Mayor costume competition.

But it isn’t just costumes. Pumpkins & Pancakes also means all sorts of prizes, drawings and my personal favorite, balloon artists. Incredible. They blow up a skinny balloon the size of a kielbasa then twist and squeak it and twist it some more and it ends up being the Lincoln Memorial. I don’t get it.

But aside from making me really hungry, all this talk about pancakes got me to thinking — exactly where did that modest little floppy flat thing we call a pancake come from? Who came up with the first pancake in the history of pancakes?

As it turns out, saying pancakes have been around forever isn’t all that much of a stretch. Pancakes have been around almost as long as we have. There are a number of examples of pancake recipes from ancient Rome, like “Sfongia Ex Lacte et Ova” — “Pancakes from Milk and Eggs.”

The recipe calls for a simple batter of milk, flour and eggs to be poured on a hot, stone surface that has been lightly greased. I don’t care if you’re in ancient Rome or modern Miami — that’s a pancake.

A 1430 English cookbook includes pancakes, and a 1514 Dutch cookbook has a number of pancake recipes.

By the 18th century, the world was awash in pancakes of one type or another. In England and Ireland, then Canada and Australia, eating pancakes on Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras) became a huge tradition.

In fact, Shrove Tuesday is called Pancake Tuesday in Ireland. When the Europeans crossed the Big Pond, they brought their pancakes with them only to find that Native Americans were already flipping hotcakes like, well, hotcakes. By the way, hotcakes, flapjacks, griddle cakes, pancakes — doesn’t matter. They’re all the same, just called different things depending on where you’re from.

“Pancake races” have been popular in Europe since the Middle Ages. Each contestant holds a fry pan with a pancake in it in one hand. It’s a mad dash for the finish line but you have to keep flipping your pancake as you run. The Middle Ages were a simpler time.

So there you have it — pancake races, squeaky balloons and ancient Rome. If you’re into pancakes or pumpkins or kids or any combination thereof, ease on down to South Coast Plaza next Sunday from 8 to 11 a.m.

For more information and/or tickets, call (714) 619-5158 or click your way to www.southcoastplaza.com/pumpkins Could it be any easier? I don’t see how. Next week, the history of waffles. I gotta go.

PETER BUFFA is a former Costa Mesa mayor. His column runs Sundays. He may be reached at ptrb4@aol.com.