Lots of news about Speeders TV, a man blaming a speeding ticket on an errant Oreo cookie, and, finally, Oreo cookies themselves! Could there be any "sweeter" topics? Enjoy!
Speeders TV Announced Canceled
Sadly it's true. There hasn't been a new episode shown for a about five months now and Court TV released why. The only reason they have for this show being canceled is that there weren't enough viewers and Police Departments willing to participate in the show. Speeders has been replaced by Inside American Jail (which we at Car Nut absolutely enjoy. At our home, it's a tough choice between MSNBC's "Locked Up" and "Inside American Jail", or IAJ, but with America having more prisoners than any other country in the world, over 2,000,000 of them, IAJ, located mostly as it is in county facilities, is a nice respite from the MSNBC world of federal and state prisons --- And hey! Don't even get us started about "Perverted Justice!"). And WHAT PD in the country HASN'T been profiled by this time!??! No wonder there are no new volunteers! Now try this Oreo-moment on for size:
SALISBURY, Conn. (AP) -- Police say a man's excuse for speeding through a small Connecticut town takes the cake -- or, at least, the cookie.
A state trooper who stopped the 1993 BMW last fall says its driver, 28-year-old Justin Vonkummer of Millerton, N.Y., blamed his driving problems on an errant Oreo.
Vonkummer told the trooper that an Oreo had just slipped from his fingers as he dunked it in a cup of milk, and that he was trying to fish it out when he lost control of his car.
Prosecutors learned in court this week that Vonkummer had been charged with speeding and driving under a suspended license -- not driving under the influence, as a clerk had mistakenly noted in the court records.
Vonkummer's attorney declined to comment. The case is pending.
And now, from our good friends at ABOUT.COM, where we've written a bit about cars now and then, we find the following 'tribute' to the Oreo and its history: (Photo --- An Oreo-themed cookie jar made by Nabisco for Oreo-lovers in Japan. Look closely and you'll note the writing on the cookies is in Japanese ... at least it looks that way to us).
In 1898, several baking companies merged to form the National Biscuit Company (NaBisCo), the maker of
Oreo cookies. By 1902, Nabisco created Barnum's Animal cookies and made them famous by selling them in a little box designed like a cage with a string attached (to hang on Christmas trees).
In 1912, Nabisco had a new idea for a cookie - two chocolate disks with a creme filling in between. The first Oreo cookie looked very similar to the Oreo cookie of today, with only a slight difference in the design on the chocolate disks.
The shape and design of the Oreo cookie didn't change much until Nabisco began selling various versions of the cookie. In 1975, Nabisco released their DOUBLE STUF Oreos. Nabisco continued to create variations:
1987 -- Fudge covered Oreos introduced
1991 -- Halloween Oreos introduced
1995 -- Christmas Oreos introduced
The Mysterious Name
So how did the Oreo get its name? The people at Nabisco aren't quite sure. Some believe that the cookie's name was taken from the French word for gold, "or" (the main color on early Oreo packages). Others claim the name stemmed from the shape of a hill-shaped test version; thus naming the cookie in Greek for mountain, "oreo." Still others believe the name is a combination of taking the "re" from "cream" and placing it between the two "o"s in "chocolate" - making "o-re-o." And still others believe that the cookie was named Oreo because it was short and easy to pronounce.
No matter how it got named, over 362 billion Oreo cookies have been sold since it was first introduced in 1912, making it the best selling cookie of the 20th century. (end of ABOUT.COM piece)
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