“I wrote 63 songs this year. They’re all about Jeter.” Just kidding. The game we love, the players we hate, and more.
From Norman Mailer to Wendy Pepper — everything on film, TV, books, music, and snacks (shut up, raisins), plus the Girls’ Bike Club.
Helping public schools, winning prizes, sending a crazy lady in a tomato costume out in public.
Monologues, travelogues, fiction, and fart humor. And hens. Don’t forget the hens.
The Tomato Nation advice column addresses your questions on etiquette, grammar, romance, and pet misbehavior. Ask The Readers about books or fashion today!
Can’t tell the difference between some of these selections? Welcome to Keckler’s and my lives during the set-up of these tourneys. Heh. Vote for what you’ve heard of, tried, or liked, and we’ll sort it out from there.
Pepperidge Farm prelims remain open, so if you haven’t voted in those, please do so.
I’ve (re-)discovered a few things over the course of the recent Days Of Rage. Some of them are great!
I found it while researching a murder (…this is a sentence I have more frequent use for than most), the true story of a neighborhood legend from my childhood. I grew up in a leafy, …
Good god, Canada sucks when it comes to snack food.
If I could vote one million times for E.L. Fudge Original, I would. Heaven in a plastic tray.
I also love E.L. Fudge cookies. It just occurred to me to wonder, “What do the initials stand for?” but now I get it.
E.L. Fudge! I just got that.
Seriously…I’m on the Keebler page right now, and I think I’m going to cry. You guys, I had NO IDEA. We Canucks missed out on so much.
Actually, maybe my parents just deprived us and all those types were available and we only ever got Oreos or Chips Ahoy. Any other Canadians feeling overwhelmed?
I need to go out and buy some Soft Batch cookies RIGHT NOW.
Frosted Animals AND Iced Animals? Wow. Bet that was a long meeting in the hollow tree….
@Joe Reid: PLUS their name is a pun! We also always liked to look at what they were lugging around–like there’d be an elf carrying flour, one with sugar, etc.
I got no time for Oreos, but I love an E.L. Fudge. I would almost swear they used to make a version with peanut butter cookies around the chocolate filling. Oh my.
Would it be possible to post somewhere what the other big categories/brands are going to be? I definitely want Frosted Animals in the line-up (those things are like crack), but I’m a traditionalist and prefer “Mother’s” brand Circus Animals. Same with the Vanilla wafers, they need to be in there, but the Nabisco version.
Also, kudos to Sars and Keckler if you had to spend more than 30 seconds navigating the ridiculous, Flash nonsense of the Keebler site to assemble this list!
Fudge Sticks rock my world! Hell yeah!
Write-in vote for Vienna Fingers.
…and now I need chocolate. And possibly milk.
@ Hellcat: I was just thinking the same thing. Mind you, I’m not much of a cookie eater, but I’ve never heard of most of these.
I’ve cleared the poll results for the second Keebler prelim and reset them with Vienna Fingers included. Sorry for the oversight!
Holy shit, there are Chocolate Chip Pecan Sandies?! There IS a God.
Long live the Fudge Stipe Cookie. Proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy!
I tried the annoyingly cutesy Keebler site to get a description of the cookies – and nada. Unless I gave up way too soon all I could find were pictures of the cookies. Is that really that informative? I may vote a straight Pepperidge Farms ticket just for that.
Sometimes, a person craves a Sandie. And when that happens, nothing but nothing else will do. One chocolatey-themed cookie will do in a pinch for another, but the Sandie is distinct. Maybe it’s the barest hint of salt in the shortbread?
Soft Batch! I had completely forgotten about the existence of Soft Batch until I saw this list, but you just brought back a whole flood of warm (literally – I’d nuke ’em) childhood memories.
@Hellcat13 – you are so right. This is a travesty. I need to go grocery shopping in Buffalo more often.
Glad iced and frosted animal crackers both made it, although I’m afraid most people aren’t aware of the crucial difference between the two. ICED FTW (in a perfect world, anyway).
I know the difference between iced and frosted, but I don’t know which is which.
Which are the pink and white ones, with the little roung sprikles on them?
@ avis: Try this – http://www.keebler.com/#/cookies/
click each cookie and it will tell you what it is. For instance, if you click E.L. Fudge, it says, “Butter Sandwich Cookies with Fudge Creme Filling in Elfin Shape!”
Iced Animals are the spice cookies with the pinkish icing on top. They used to be to die for, but somewhere along the line they ‘updated’ and ‘improved’ the recipe and the icing just isn’t the same. SIGH.
Frosted Animals are the same cookies, only they are totally covered in pink or white frosting and then have those little round ball sprinkle thingies on. The frosting is a bit plasticky but these things are heaven in a bag.
I had been trying to deny the existence of the Frosted Animals but my mom introduced them to my 3-year-old and now it’s “Mama, can I please have some of Nana’s animal cookies?” “How about these homemade chocolate-chip cookies that just came out of the oven?” “Nooooooooo! [insert deranged wailing] I want animal cookies!”
…and so on.
When we get to Nabisco remember the Cameos. Vienna Fingers are just the poor man’s Cameo.
@Tisha – Thanks. I did check there first but while the E.L. Fudge description isn’t bad, if you visit the Fudge Shoppe, wherein lie some of my personal faves, you get “Enjoy a variety of different flavors of Fudge & Cookie combinations!” which is less helpful.
Mmmm… Frosted Animals. Never buy them because I will sit there and eat until I am sick.
Sadly, Rachel is right. The iced ones aren’t quite as exquisite as they used to be, but I still prefer them to frosted, which are completely covered in waxy pink or white coating that requires multiple tooth-brushings to truly recover from.
@ avis: LMAO! You’re right. I’m sorry. I didn’t look past EL Fudge. My bad.
OMG I love E.L. Fudge! Like Giggles, only not.
I am shocked to see Pecan Sandies in the lead. It was one of those cookies growing up where I thought it was just my weird family buying those. I never knew anyone else who ate them!
Pecan Sandies were the SPECIAL cookies, that we only got every once in a while, and everyone fought over them (like how everyone in my family also fights over the corners pieces of a cake).
Mmmmm! Danish Wedding Cookies!
I’m not even sure they still MAKE them, but in recent history, there was a cinnamon swirl sandy superior to all other types. I haven’t seen them in a while, but then, I only ever saw them anywhere while living in the SW. They were delicious. Definitely a write in vote for those.
I was thinking that Iced Animals were my crack cookies but now I’m thinking it was the Frosted Animals? Anyway…. I’m another person who cannot be left alone with a bag of those things. I will eat way, way too many.
This Cookie Draw is going to be torture for me. TORTURE. So many cookies I never even knew existed. Damn!