yep, it’s true--there's a recession going on out there, and like pretty much everybody else, i got canned. the good news for me is i was able to land a new gig within a few weeks thanks to an esoteric computer chip programming skill (the details of which are far too boring for a snack blog).
it was when i was between jobs, wandering the streets of boston (and maybe i had consumed a few cold ones) that i talked to shawn about guest snack blogging. i had a lot of time of my hands and had just thoroughly enjoyed reading about todd’s spotted dick (soon to be followed by wilk’s hot nuts) and i wanted in on the action.
fast forward a week and i was working at the new job and all of a sudden i didn’t have much time to think about interesting things to write about. brain was busy digesting new corporate secrets, trying to find where my printouts were being sent to and coping with having to use a shared bathroom instead of the solo units we had the luxury of at the old place.
furthermore, i realized i don’t really even eat snacks. i mean, an apple and a glass of water at 3pm in the afternoon is pretty wild for this guy. what i am basically telling you is this here blog had a pretty good chance of never happening, but as luck would have it, i forgot to grab my apple on the way out this morning and so i wandered down to the cafeteria and bought a little snacky snack.
snack away! #9 - newton's law of figs.
guest blogger: chris leduc, newton, mass
snack: fig newtons
drink: starbucks tazo zen tea (with a little squirt o’ honey)
when’s the last time you had a fig newton? for me it was a least 15 years ago. i remember wondering as a kid what the frig a newton was. why on earth would a cookie be named after the metric system unit for force? what? your kids don’t use the metric system? well fast forward those 15 years and now i live in the city of newton, a rather pleasant if not slightly boring boston suburb which is actually a collection of approximately 13 individual villages rather than one central downtown area. i say approximately because these villages have no official borders and it is hard to even get an official list of what they all are...so i did what any reasonable person would do and went straight for the best places to get indisputable facts: wikipedia...and it was while perusing the wikipedia page about newton that i stumbled upon an answer to that 15 year old question: the fig newton is named so because it was invented right here.
...so it was a no brainer that i grabbed the fig newtons when i saw them in the vending machine today. i paired them with a hot cup of tazo zen tea (with a little squirt o’ honey) from the pseudo-starbucks in the lobby. one thing i noticed right away is that these things are messy. the cake outer part crumbled all over the place and i had quite the mess. biting into the newton, you get a very sugary blast of fig. anyway, i assume it's fig because that’s what it says on the package and i’ve never had a fig in its natural state.
overall, i’d say it was pretty gross and i think i am all set with the fig newton for another 15 years. the aforementioned grossness didn’t stop me from wolfing down both newtons and 200 calories later, i was wishing i had selected a cold beverage to cleanse the cake residue in my mouth. the tazo tea had cooled enough by this point and i found it very refreshing and generally zen-like as advertised.
i don’t regret getting the newtons, as it was a nice trip down memory lane, but the next time i get a little hungry at work, i think i’ll go with a bag of chips.
chris leduc is a jumbo who does something with computers & has been responsible for approximately 17,000 funny moments over his 33+ years. he will sing "cracklin' rosie" for you at the drop of a hat. one time, he saved money, bought car.