Spin Cycle

Grab your dealer, Do-si-do, find her stash and have Samoa

What a sweet time of year. When all the vivid purples, reds and greens begin popping!

Irises, tulips and hydrangeas?

No. Samoas, Tagalongs and Thin Mints! I'm referring, of course, to the appetizing, eye-catching colors of those Girl Scout Cookie Boxes! (Those packages you pitch into recycling after polishing off several cookie sleeves and rows.)

Our adorable office dealer delivered my Scout stash early last week. Which means by now I'm surely due for a sugar coma ... and resupply mission -- is my appetite getting larger or do those boxes keep getting smaller? Probably both. Whatever, someone sell me s'more S'mores (that's the new cookie for this year: "Crunchy graham sandwich cookies with creamy chocolate and marshmallowy filling." The best part is there's no actual camping required).

Here are some Girl Scout Cookies crumbles and rumbles:

• According to a poll from Influenster.com, which looked at the most popular Girl Scout Cookie flavor by state, Arkansas is sweet on Thin Mints (as is most of America; they scored the highest number of votes nationwide with Samoas and Tagalongs in second and third respectively). Which means, at least when it comes to cookies, Arkansas is not a red (box) state, it's a green (box) state. Personally, we approve of any poll in which Arkansas is associated with "thin."

• Girl Scout Cookies recently were barred at a bar. An Oregon troop's cookie inventory was hauled off and their leader was dismissed after orders not to sell in front of a college hangout called Taylor's Bar and Grill were disobeyed. Apparently a place where university students get baked is not a place where children should sell baked goods.

• According to a Chicago Tribune story that quotes a nutritionist clinical research dietitian at Northwestern University, the least healthy Girl Scout Cookie is the Samoa. Each contains 75 delicious calories, as well as saturated fat and trans fat via partially hydrogenated oil (the box reports zero trans fat grams, but the Food and Drug Administration allows companies to list foods with less than 0.5 grams as having zero). Instead the nutritionist smiles on lemony Savannah Smiles. Containing only 28 calories each, very little fat and very little fun, Savannah Smiles give us the Scribe Scowls.

• The Daytona Beach News-Journal reports there was quite a cookie kerfuffle outside a Florida Wal-Mart recently. Two male teenagers were arrested after they attacked the family of a Girl Scout who apparently owed them $20. When that debt wasn't settled, the teenagers demanded to be paid in cookies instead. They resorted to destroying the cookie stand, while violently fighting -- giving punch and cookies a whole new meaning.

• Not only can potential customers who want to get some drive-by Do-si-dos visit girlscouts.org and search their ZIP code for cookie sales, they can download the Girl Scout Cookie Finder mobile app. Try and tame your Toffee-tastic yearnings if you get the "We were unable to find a Cookie Sale in your area, but don't despair" message. You can set up phone alert notifications when there are Trefoils within in, say, 10 miles and avoid being foiled.

• Now through Saturday is restaurant week when eateries create special Girl-Scout-Cookie-inspired desserts that incorporate the treats. And Scouts can even earn a Restaurant Week patch by ordering a Girl Scout Cookie dessert at two participating restaurants (see website in above blurb). If I had known sugar consumption was merit badge activity, I never would have quit after Brownies (mmm, brownies).

Scout out time to email:

jchristman@arkansasonline.com

Spin Cycle is a smirk at pop culture. You can hear Jennifer on Little Rock's KURB-FM, B98.5 (B98.com), from 5:30 to 9 a.m. Monday through Friday.

Style on 03/12/2017

Upcoming Events