Good middle-of-the-week morning. Happy Wednesday.
I have probably spent far too much time in this space ruminating on my own personal Proustian madeleines – the foods that evoke deep and meaningful emotions and memories from my past.
So much of what we do is connected to food. We need to eat to live, after all. But, of course, food is so much more than just sustenance. It is love. It is comfort. It is community. It is crisis. It is conflict.
That’s a pretty weighty introduction to something as light hearted as a cookie. But, then again, I would argue that a cookie as iconic as the Oreo merits a significant lead-in. It is, after all, (at least according to its maker, the Kraft Foods Company) the “World’s Best-Selling Cookie”, though its cousin, the chocolate chip cookie, is reportedly America’s favorite.
These days there are more than 80 different kinds of Oreos on the market, including at least one introduced just this year – a “space dunk” version filled with pink and blue marshmallow creme and studded with popping candy that explodes in your mouth when you bite it.
There have also been a series of limited edition flavors like birthday cake, blueberry pie, and fruity crisp – all of which have been discontinued.
But Oreo started from humble beginnings – two round chocolate cookies with some white fondant-type creme filling in between. The first “Oreo Biscuit” was developed by the National Biscuit Company – the precursor to Nabisco – in 1912 in, of all places, what is now the Chelsea Market complex in Manhattan.
The cookie has gone through a number of name changes. It became “Oreo Sandwich” in 1921, and then “Oreo Crème Sandwich” in 1948. The current official name – “Oreo Chocolate Sandwich Cookie” – debuted in 1974 and remains to this day.
Oreo’s “creme” filling is something of a misnomer. Though it’s certainly creamy in texture, there’s no dairy involved. The white center of the Oreo is made of hydrogenated vegetable oil, high fructose corn syrup, soy lecithin, and vanillin. Once upon a time, its featured fat was lard, but it was replaced by vegetable oil in the early 1990s – much to the joy of Kosher children everywhere.
Prior to this change, the option for those who observe kashruth was Hydrox, which, as it turns out, was the original black-and-white sandwich creme on the market in the first place.
Yes, my friends, despite what you probably have long believed (unless you’re in the know), Hydrox was NOT an Oreo knockoff, but rather it was the other way around. So what happened? Well, Oreo was a lot better at marketing, and that’s pretty much the end of it.
Today, Oreos, owned by Mondelēz (formerly Kraft Foods) since 2000, are a cookie monster – so to speak – available in some 100 countries across the globe, and when the cookie marked its 100th anniversary in 2011, more than 500 BILLION of them were sold worldwide.
Happy National Oreo Day, BTW, which actually comes a little early in the month, in my humble opinion, as the cookie trademark request was filed on March 14, 1912, but apparently the name was first used on trademark forms a few days earlier? At any rate, the trademark request wasn’t granted until August 1913.
Another rainy day is on tap. Hopefully the flowers are really enjoying this, and the ducks, and the peepers. It’s not great for floors that are tracked on by muddy dog feet, that’s for sure. Temperatures will be in the low-to-mid 50s.
In the headlines…
Both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump picked up a large number of delegates in their dominating wins on Super Tuesday.
Nikki Haley also picked up some delegates, winning the Vermont GOP primary, but she remains far behind Trump. Meanwhile, in American Samoa — where 91 votes were cast in the Democratic caucuses — Biden lost to Democratic candidate Jason Palmer.
Pro-Palestinian Democrats made their voices heard in Minnesota, where close to 45,000 people cast a vote for “uncommitted” in the Democratic primary in protest against the Biden administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.
Taylor Swift urged members of her vast Instagram following to vote if they live in one of the 15 states holding primary elections for the presidency on Super Tuesday, but didn’t endorse a candidate.
With an estimated 943 total delegates to Haley’s 86 so far, per ABC News projections, Trump is well on his way to securing the magic delegate majority number of 1,215 — though it may take a few more weeks.
As he dominated the Super Tuesday battlefield, Trump warned of dark days ahead if Biden were to win a second term. “We’re a third-world country,” he said repeatedly.
Haley did not hold any public events last night, nor deliver any remarks, but a campaign spokesperson said the GOP candidate was honored to be the first Republican woman to win two presidential primary contests.
Trump, who is urgently seeking a cash infusion to aid his presidential campaign, reportedly met last weekend in Palm Beach, Fla., with Elon Musk, one of the world’s richest men, and a few wealthy Republican donors.
Trump’s attorneys filed a motion yesterday for a new trial in writer E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case and asked a judge to substantially reduce the judgment of $83.3 million against the former president.
Trump argued that Judge Lewis Kaplan wrongly prohibited him from defending himself during his brief testimony and that warrants a new trial.
“Tens of millions of Americans” want to hear what Trump has to say about his upcoming “hush money” trial in New York, his lawyers argued earlier this week in papers opposing the district attorney’s proposed limited gag order.
The public release of the 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape before the 2016 presidential election “served as the catalyst” for Trump’s hush payment to Stormy Daniels and should be admissible at his upcoming hush money trial, prosecutors argued in a court filing.
As Biden faces what polls show is significant concern about his 81 years, and a tight election against his likely opponent, Trump, the White House strategy is to have him step out of his protective bubble and directly take on voters’ worries.
Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, the Democrat turned independent who cut bipartisan deals that cemented parts of President Biden’s agenda but also stymied some of her former party’s highest priorities, said that she would not seek re-election.
The Israeli military turned back a convoy trying to take 200 tons of food into northern Gaza yesterday, a U.N. agency said, a day after United Nations officials said children in the territory were dying of starvation.
The United States yesterday circulated a newly revised draft United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an immediate temporary ceasefire in Gaza and the release of all hostages, according to a UN diplomat.
Hamas says it has shown the flexibility required to reach a truce that stops the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people but Israel is evading demands for a ceasefire.
Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz has ended his visit to the United States and is traveling to the United Kingdom for a one-day visit, his office said in a statement.
Starbucks franchise operators across the Middle East and Southeast Asia are losing significant business amid boycotts linked to the Israel-Hamas war, and at least one has started laying off employees.
The House subcommittee tasked with investigating the nation’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has subpoenaed former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in relation to his administration’s handling of nursing homes during the pandemic.
The committee is seeking to question Cuomo about one of his administration’s most controversial COVID-era directives: instructing nursing homes to admit recovering COVID-positive patients from hospitals, a move that critics say led to increased deaths.
According to a letter from the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, the Cuomo administration downplayed and even covered up the impacts of the order.
The order to sit for the House lawmakers comes after the panel has also requested that former members of the Cuomo administration be interviewed, including former top aide Melissa DeRosa.
Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi slammed Republican lawmakers, accusing them of playing politics with the pandemic, saying: “Congress is officially a circus and they are nothing but clowns.”
Azzopardi also noted that the claims at issue had been investigated by both the Department of Justice and the Manhattan district attorney’s office, both of which declined to bring criminal charges.
Due to better than expected tax revenue, Gov. Kathy Hochul is willing to consider scrapping her budget proposal to end the so-called “save harmless” practice in school aid allocation, according to the state budget director.
With one-house budgets expected soon, the state Legislature is poised to push back against Hochul’s proposed changes to school funding.
Hochul plans to make an announcement about subway safety today in the wake of several violent incidents. Yesterday, police said a man was attacked with a metal object inside the Grand Avenue station in Elmhurst, Queens
The State University of New York system will phase out the use of single-use plastics like bags, beverage bottles, food service products, utensils, plastic wrap and packaging films, SUNY Chancellor John King announced.
The state attorney general’s office has filed a lawsuit against more than 40 companies and individuals alleging they exploited small businesses through fraudulent loans with high interest rates.
New York state prison inmates would get $2,600 in taxpayer-funded pocket money to make ends meet when they leave the slammer in a new bill making the rounds in Albany.
Organized labor is seeking a non-punitive option to improve safety for retail workers, amid high rates of theft in stores in New York.
Health care and public health advocates yesterday flooded the state Capitol, hoping to convince lawmakers to include funding priorities in the budget.
More than 37,714 migrants have applied for asylum and work authorization through the New York City Asylum Application Help Center and its satellite sites since they opened over the summer, city officials said.
An attorney for Mayor Eric Adams said that there’s nothing to suggest he’s the “target” of any criminal probe in the wake of FBI raids at the homes of Winnie Greco, a top City Hall adviser.
Adams hit back at Washington over claims City Hall was to blame for the feds only coughing up a slither of the $150 million it promised to help the Big Apple cope with the migrant crisis.
Councilmember Alexa Aviles demanded at a budget hearing that Adams restore cuts to immigrant legal and language services, and criticized his administration for relying too heavily on for-profit contracts in the city’s response to the asylum seeker crisis.
Adams and several of his top advisers struck a defiant tone after Biden’s administration accused them of failing to submit the correct documents to unlock a total of $159 million in federal migrant crisis aid earmarked for New York City.
Adams said he is pushing to permanently boost the number of cops on trains and subway platforms in an effort to curb the Big Apple’s burgeoning underground crime wave.
A series of violent incidents on the subways has prompted Adams to order a new series of security protocols to keep knives, box cutters, clubs and guns off of trains and platforms.
Adams is planning to impose a curfew at the violence-plagued Randall’s Island migrant camp — where one asylum seeker was stabbed to death in January.
A woman accusing Adams of sexually assaulting her decades ago reportedly must file a formal complaint in court within 20 days outlining more details about her shocking claim.
New York City landlords — under threat of $10,000 fines — have moved to evict 75 retail tenants who were selling cannabis without a license, city officials said.
Big Apple prosecutors are lining up behind Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg in his legal scuffle to get a suspected slaying suspect back to New York to face murder charges, saying an Arizona prosecutor’s refusal to extradite the accused killer is “beneath our profession.”
A Bronx man who was described as a “migrant” and a “shoplifter” by Curtis Sliwa during a live TV beatdown by his Guardian Angels in Times Square last month says he is fighting back — with a lawsuit and criminal complaint against the vigilante group.
Subway riders should expect more random searches of bags and backpacks amid a rise in transit crime, including three fatal shootings so far this year.
Mount Sinai Beth Israel is shutting down services for stroke and cardiac patients this month as a growing number of employees leave its staff, the hospital has confirmed.
Opinions about the upstate New York business climate are at the lowest point since 2008, according to a poll released by the Siena College Research Institute.
A former raw milk cheese manufacturer and his company in Walton, NY, pleaded guilty in connection to an outbreak of listeria from 2016 to 2017 that killed two people and left six others hospitalized, prosecutors said.
The state Working Families Party is endorsing defense attorney Lee Kindlon in his second bid for Albany County district attorney against incumbent David Soares.
A lawyer for the family of a U.S. Marine killed in the 2018 limousine crash in Schoharie is seeking high-quality copies of the Mavis Discount Tire surveillance video recordings that were shown to the jury at the trial of limo operator Nauman Hussain last year.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
