cookies...the other side of the story.
Timothy A. McDaniel
tmcd at crl.com
Wed Jan 29 16:22:12 PST 1997
Recently, diacono at seas.gwu.edu picked up the "two-fifty cookie recipe"
story and began spreading it. The message I saw was:
> I got this e-mail from a cookie loving friend and thought I'd pass it
> along to another!
>
> My daughter and I had just finished a salad at Neiman-Marcus Cafe
> in Dallas & decided to have a small dessert. Because both of us are
> such cookie lovers, we decided to try the "Neiman-Marcus Cookie".
...
> Have fun!!! This is not a joke - this is a true story ...
Actually, it's quite false. It's a classic "urban legend", now
receiving a new burst of vectoring. The previous one I saw, a few
years ago, was the Mrs. Field's Cookies version. The
alt.folklore.urban FAQ refers to "The Mrs. Fields Cookie Recipe"
section in "CBA", _Curses!__Broiled_Again!_ by Jan Harold Brunvand,
the noted researcher of urban legends. "This is probably a descendent
of the 'Red Velvet Cake' UL in TVH (_The Vanaishing Hitchhiker_, by
the same author]. Another version involves Neiman-Marcus and many
other noted retail establishments." Despite denials by Mrs. Fields
and an unclaimed reward if anyone produced a receipt or a bill, this
story is still being spread.
http://www.urbanlegends.com/ is a good place to start for researching
whether something is a known urban legend. The Frequently-Asked
Questions list is informative. (It's no coincidence that it's
labelled "version 250". The denizens of AFU have a sharp sense of
humour.)
Please help stomp out this falsehood. I request that you please do
not spread this story as truth any more; that if anyone tells you
about it, please tell them that it has been debunked; that if you
remember telling people about this story, please mention to them that
it's false. This urban legend is worse than most, being slander or
libel.
--
Tim McDaniel
Reply-To: tmcd at crl.com
Never use mcdaniel at mcdaniel.dallas.tx.us.
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