WRITINGS & NEWS
Like the end of most years, inundated with best-of lists, I find myself wanting to put together lists of my own favorites. Of course, as followers of this blog will know, this is always a short-lived impulse - this blog will dissolve back into dust and tumbleweeds before the week is out - but let's ride it as long as we can.
I'm counting down my favorite albums, songs, and films of 2016. Let's see how far we get. I'm making no promises.
You can catch up on what's happening here and read about the first two parts of the shopping trip here and here. If you want to skip all that, here's the quick summary:
I am on a hunt to buy everything in this grocery store that is pumpkin spice flavored, to prove that "Peak Pumpkin Spice" is over. To accomplish this mission, I've set up three ground rules:
And now, back to the store, where I've just realized I'm going to have to learn how to bake pumpkin spice cookies and pumpkin spice bread and pumpkin spice pancakes. Things aren't looking good...
I turn from the baking aisle and into the bread aisle. Since I assume that anyone who wants pumpkin spice bread will be baking their own, I'm pretty sure I can make it down this one safely.
And I almost do, until right at the end:
You can catch up on what's happening here and read about the first part of the shopping trip here. Otherwise, the quickest summary possible:
I am on a hunt to buy everything in this grocery store that is pumpkin spice flavored. To accomplish this mission, I've set up three ground rules:
We now join the hunt in progress...
I have become convinced that Peak Pumpkin Spice is over. The era of creating a "Pumpkin Spice!" version of your product has come and gone. Only the pumpkin spice-flavored foods that people actually want remain - therefore, everything labeled "pumpkin spice" in the store must be able to stand up on its own feet as a product.
But the only way to prove that was to try everything pumpkin spice that still existed, and see if it merited existence. With that in mind, I drove to the grocery store to see what was left - and to buy all of it.
