Today is IHOP's annual National Pancake Day. What does this mean for you? It means that you can score a free short stack of buttermilk pancakes at your local Maison Internationale Des Crêpes. It also means that loads of children's charities will be helped.

Last year, according to Anna Roth, National Pancake Day "raised nearly $3 million for children's charities — when customers order a free short stack, they're encouraged to donate to the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals."

Pancake freebies end at 10 PM tonight. Not that you should be eating cake in any form past the seven o'clock hour. That's unseemly Then again, you probably ate pancakes with chocolate chips when you were young, didn't you? That's insane. You got everything. (Your mom probably let you buy E.T. cereal at the store, didn't she? See, you got everything.) My father would have never allowed such tomfoolery during Saturday morning breakfast. He was a blueberries kinda guy, that's it. Maybe a Mickey Mouse pancake configuration if he woke up in a semi-decent mood. But no chocolate chips — and certainly no whipped cream, you animals.

Anyway, find your nearest iHOP location here.