Big Storm

What, exactly, is happening with the media these days?  Are these local television affiliations even covering news - real news?

The last 2 days have been filled with all of the usual hype over an approaching storm.  Forecasts, computer model trend analysis, 20 year March statistical data, all of the latest gimmickry displayed through High Definition CGI.  Granted it did possess all of the ingredients for quite an impact up and down the front range and to some extent lived up to the dire forecast. It caused a delayed opening for the school district, and I hear out on the plains the interstate is closed. I’m sure it caused injury and even death for a unfortunate few. But, the storm really was just another little, rain to sleet to snow, spring storm with no huge impact for Denver as predicted. 

ANYWAY, last night the leading news story was “We’re still waiting for the storm.” with side commentary stories on how the DOT was preparing, what type of solution was or was not going to be used and so on. I was under the impression that the good old USofA was celebrating the 3 year anniversary of Operation Iraqi Screw-Up.  I would imagine that to be a pretty juicy story...full of objective and subjective commentary. Pretty risky.

Hey, let’s just go sledding instead.

Crew Socks

So, I’m told we’re all special and unique individuals.  Someone please inform the sock manufactures of this little fact.  Shoe manufacturers sure have figured it out, it’s a no brainer.  Shoes come in all kinds of sizes and widths, so why with all of this selection, why can’t an individual obtain a sized sock?  Now, I know what you’re thinking...socks come in those convenient multipacks size 5-12.  Remember walking around in a pair of your parents shoes as a kid?  They didn’t fit, right?  So, why would a sock that would be comfy on a size 12 foot even begin to fit mine at a size 8?  In this litigious society, it’s only a matter of time until someone sues because their too big sock, all folded over inside their shoe caused them to trip and fall down a flight of stairs or something.

I’m just saying. 

Thin Mint Cookies

How many boxes did you buy?  How many are left?  There was a time that I could not get enough thin mint cookies.  Nibble off a bit of the chocolate shell, submerge in a glass of milk and wait.  The trick was to see how long you could actually wait and to check how much of the cookie wafer was soaked with the milk.  Enough saturation of milk and they melt in your mouth!  Funny thing though at some point around college I started to experiment with other cookies. Thin Mints were no longer the most sought after cookie...even stranger is that right around these years something changed in the thin mint cookie.

Over the last couple of years I’ve come back to the thin mint to only discover the inside color, the actual wafer had changed!  No longer a neutral creme color that so complimented the milk saturation game, they were now a yucky brownish color.

This must of happened around those college years when I wasn’t looking. Of course most people that I mention this to, including my wife, think I’m crazy. “They’ve always been brown!”, they say.  

I recently did a little sleuthing around this issue and have only found found one obscure link to another male individual struggling with this same mystery.  I had enough and decided to contact the Girl Scouts. 

The following is my e-mail:

I'm hoping you will be able to confirm the fact 

that sometime in the late 1980's or early 

1990's the wafer color in the Thin Mint's 

changed from a cream/ white color to the 

current chocolate color.

Approximately 1 in 4 people I ask 

confirmation of this phenomena, perhaps a 

regional difference in the cookie existed?

Please help me with what my memory insists 

was the truth.

Thank you.

Dennis

And their reply:

Thanks for taking the time to write to Girl Scouts of the U.S.A.  Our archivist in the Nat'l Historic Preservation Center tells me that thin mint was traditionally chocolate.

You can find a history of GS cookies online at http://www.girlscouts.org/program/gs_cookies/cookie_history/  

Hope this helps.  Best wishes,

Xxxxx Xxxxxxx, Information Specialist, GSUSA

Girl Scouts.  Where Girls Grow Strong.

Girl Scouts of the U.S.A.

420 - Fifth Avenue

New York, NY  10018

www.girlscouts.org

1-800-GSUSA-4-U

1-800-478-7248

Not really an answer in my opinion.  The history link suggested (which I checked perviously provided little information. In fact, The word “traditionally” leaves room for interpretation.  As if “Yes, there were anomalies in formula and recipe.” could be imbedded there.

So, the mystery continues.