Around the Bluhmin’ Town

By

Judy Bluhm

Happy Birthday to the most scrumptious and famous cookie in the world! Yes, the Oreo cookie just celebrated 114 years of deliciousness. And we are here for the party.

With 500 billion cookies sold in 100 countries over the past 114 years, I guess it is safe to say we love our Oreos. Twist them, lick them, dunk them. If all the Oreo cookies ever made were stacked, they could circle Earth more than 300 times. Scientists have conducted research and claim that eating these iconic cookies does have an “addictive quality” by triggering the pleasure centers in our brains. I hope that research didn’t cost much, since I would have done it for free.

I do recall my grandson, Kevin, eating a package of Oreos when he was about four years old. He grabbed them out of the pantry, sat in a closet and happily ate twenty cookies and hid the other sixteen from his brothers. When confronted about the cookie hoist, he claimed a “strange man walked into the house and stole the Oreos.” Although the evidence of cookie crumbs was on his face, he continued to stick to his story. Grown-up now, Keving still loves his Oreos.

A man emailed me to say that he was lost once while hiking in Colorado, getting off the trail and becoming disoriented. The only way he believes he survived is because he had a bunch of Oreos in his backpack and was able to ration them for two days. A forest ranger found him when the lost man stuck the empty bright blue cookie package to a tree limb and waited for help. He said he loves his Oreos. Well, why not? They saved his life!

Who knew that two little chocolate disks of biscuit with a sweet fondant filling would become the biggest selling treat in the world? Addictive? Maybe. Bad for us? Never. Oreos are part of our collective childhood experiences. They are not just cookies, they are the bits of our childhood sandwiched between memories of a simpler, purer time. A glass of milk and a plate of Oreos is right out of a Norman Rockwell painting.

The historians at Nabisco, which introduced the Oreo in 1912, are not sure how the name came about. Some think it was taken from the French word for “gold” which was the main color of the package when they first came out. Others believe it was based on a test-version of the cookie that was “hill shaped” instead of flat disks, and named after the Greek word for mountain, which is oros. Others think it was a made-up word that sounded snappy.

Yes, that’s it! Oreos are snappy, just break them apart and have a blast. Forget what those scientists say about “pleasure sensors.” Who cares if they might have an “addictive quality” to them. I am conducting my own “cookie research” at this very moment and will report back to you. In the meantime, Dear Readers, don’t be afraid to twist, lick, munch and dunk. Life is short. Eat the cookies.

Judy Bluhm is a writer and a local realtor. Contact Judy at [email protected] or visit www.aroundthebluhmintown.com.