Cookiegate: Tales of John Kerry's Pumpkin Looks and Theresa Heinz the Non-Pumpkin Spice Cookie Cook

The Blogspirator ^ | 9/29/04 | The Blogspirator

[adam_az]

Wednesdays WSJ Opinionjournal reports that Theresa Heinz's Pumpkin Spice Cookies are back in the news.

Reader Ruth Papazian has a theory about John Kerry's change of color, which we noted yesterday:

He's been eating too many of his wife's pumpkin spice cookies. Family Circle

sponsored a contest asking readers to bake, then vote on, cookie recipes submitted by Laura Bush (oatmeal-chocolate chunk cookies) and by Teresa Heinz Kerry.

and that

Or it may be that Kerry has chosen a Halloween costume that reminds us he by the way served in Vietnam. (Did you know?) That is to say, perhaps he's supposed to be Agent Orange.

WELL!

There's more of this frightful halloween tale to tell.

We revisit the July 28, 2004 issue of the NY Times... an article titled "Mystery Ingredients: Heinz Kerry Disavows Cookie Recipe"

This is where it gets spooky. According to the NY Times:

Ever since voters began telling Teresa Heinz Kerry that they didn't think much of the pumpkin spice cookie recipe her office had submitted to Family Circle's presidential cookie bake-off, an aide said, Mrs. Heinz Kerry, the wife of the about-to-be Democratic nominee, has been thinking how she could tell America the truth: the recipe isn't hers.

In an interview on National Public Radio that was broadcast yesterday, the cookies came up in conversation and in the direct, unvarnished style that people have come to expect, Mrs. Heinz Kerry said: "Somebody at my office gave that recipe out and, in fact, I think somebody really made it on purpose to give a nasty recipe. I never made pumpkin cookies; I don't like pumpkin spice cookies."

Mrs. Heinz Kerry had originally submitted a recipe called Yummy Wonders, but, according to Family Circle, its test kitchen said the recipe did not work. When the magazine called her press office and asked if there had been a mistake, the press office sent the pumpkin cookie recipe without consulting her, said her press secretary, Marla Romash.

Let's summarize the story so far.

Theresa Heinz submitted the Pumpkin Spice Cookie recipe before she didn't submit it, after she submitted the Yummy Wonders recipe before she didn't submit that one, either.

Then, her husband, Senator John Kerry turns an odd pumpin-spice cookie shade of orange, just as the season begins to turn towards fall. Too bad for him, his wife Theresa doesn't like pumpkin spice cookies. Even though she submits the recipe to magazines. Or doesn't.

Don't toss your cookies just yet. It gets odder.

Theresa Heinz might not bake cookies... but John Kerry does.

John Kerry started a cookie-bakery business in 1976 named "Kilvert & Forbes,"

and owned it until he sold it in 1982. (Sounds like the cookie for the common man, don't you think?) You can read more about the history of the Kerry bakery at their website.

Not surprisingly, this story seems to have a spooky parallel to the John Kerry candidacy.
Maybe he can use some of Theresa's ketchup money to buy back the cookie factory when he loses in November?

[adam_az]

ping

[Grampa Dave]

It sounds like a great Pumpkin/Orange plot?