Guess Who Turns 75?
Joe Gandelman
Just guess.
No, not Joan Rivers (close). Not Mic Jagger (close). Not William Shatner's first wig (close).
It's your favorite food. The food you were RAISED ON:
CHICAGO (AFP) - Every six seconds, someone in the United States eats a Twinkie, the creme-filled sponge cake that has climbed to iconic status since its inception 75 years ago.
And if today you ate one of the ones made 75 years ago, it'd still be fresh. MORE:
To fuel this passion, Hostess factories pump out 500 million of the sweet, yellow cakes at speeds of up to 1,000 Twinkies a minute.They also included devil's food cake to represent politicians everywhere.."It's such a simple treat. It's comfort food," explained Hostess brand manager Anne Drozda.
The Twinkie was invented in a Chicago bakery in April 1930 by a baker who wanted to make better use of shortcake pans when strawberries were out of season....The creme-filled cakes sold two for a nickel in the 1930s and soon became a national favorite. Their iconic status was sealed in 1999 when the White House included Twinkies in the millennium time capsule because they represented "an object of enduring American symbolism."
The treat has played a role in a number of movies, including a scene in Ghostbusters where it is used to illustrate a spike in ghostly appearances. Twinkies were also a favorite treat of Pink Lady Jan in the musical and film "Grease."This article also notes the infamous "Twinkie defense" used by Dan White for the shocking 1978 murder of San Francisco's mayor and the first openly gay elected city official. White got out of a first-degree murder charge by claiming that all the junk food he globbled diminished his capacities. White was convicted on the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter. And:
A man running for city council in Minneapolis was indicted in 1986 for breaching the Fair Campaign Practices Act after he served coffee, Twinkies and Ho-Hos to senior citizens at campaign stops.
Ho Hos — didn't JFK serve them in the White House?
In any event, George Belair was eventually cleared of the allegations, but lost the election. OH: and we were just joking about Twinkies still being fresh after 75 years. A Twinkie has a shelf life of 25 days...but it's a lot shorter in my house..
The fact is, I never eat this kind of crap. If and when I have an urge for sweets, I head over to La Brioche European Bakery and Coffee Shop on Madison's near west side and savor the taste of one of their great almond bear claws.
The light crust of that roll, combined with the almond paste filling (never too much, never too little) is enough to send me into Arnold Harris Ecstasy Land, after which, I treat Stefi with grace and dignity for the next 48 hours.
Twinkies? My lip would curl up in disgust of satisfying my sweet tooth with something wrapped in probably-ersatz chocolate, then set up for a shelf life of 25 days.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI