The decline of the Hostess snack cakes reflects changing tastes, along with corporate mismanagement. In my 20s, I bought a Hostess snack cake for dessert with all of my lunches. When you are in your 20s, your bodies can withstand anything. McDonald's built one of America's largest businesses on that proposition. In time, I became more concerned about weight, and after that, about artery clogging fat. I don't eat them anymore. They are still as delicious as ever, all the ridicule notwithstanding. It's just that when I read the fat content, well.... I long for the days when those things didn't matter.
That a new generation has not adopted these cakes the way mine did is a surprise to me. Tastes change. Today's young people are more conscious of sugar. They don't like to eat so much of it. Drinking sugar is another thing. They will gladly buy those 64-ounce unlimited refill sodas and think nothing of it, but not a Twinkie. Mayor Bloomburg shares my sense of irony in this fact. Instead, they will eat such things as Cheez Doodles, with the iridescent orange “cheez” on it that takes weeks to wash off your hands. What your insides look like after eating this is a frightening thought, but today's kids seem to think that salt and lard, as long as it's free of sugar, is good for you. Yet another piece of evidence of how our schools are failing.
Nevertheless, Twinkies would have survived with better corporate management. There is still a market for them. Unfortunately, if there is something even more frightening than 30 unpronounceable ingredients in your food, it's that your food has been baked by hedge funds. They never shared our love for Twinkies, or Sno Balls, Donettes (mini-donuts), Suzy Q's, Cup Cakes, and Raspberry Zingers. It was just a business to them, and when the business went south, they pulled the plug. They didn't care. And they wonder why ordinary folk so despise big bankers. This is why. We may not eat our Twinkies anymore, but it was comforting to know that they were still there.
For an interesting aside to this story, see the following interview with Cleveland bookseller John Zubal. Click here.
ALDE, Apr. 8: GUEVARA (ANTONIO DE). Histoire de Marc-Aurèle, Empereur Romain, vray miroir et horloge des Princes. Paris, Pierre et Galliot du Pré, frères, 1565. €3,000 to €4,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: HEURES DE LA VIERGE. Horæ in laudem beatissimæ virginis Mariæ ad usum Romanum. Paris, Charles L'Angelier, 1556. €4,000 to €5,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: MONTAIGNE (MICHEL DE). Les Essais. Édition nouvelle, trouvée après le deceds de l'autheur… Paris, Abel L'Angelier, 1595. €6,000 to €8,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: [ROJAS (FERNANDO DE)]. Celestina, tragicomedia di Calisto et Melibea, tradotta de lingua castigliana in italiano idioma… Venise, 1531. €2,000 to €3,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: CAMÕES (LUÍS DE). Os Lusiadas. Lisbonne, Pedro Crasbeeck, 1613. €2,000 to €3,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: CERVANTES (MIGUEL DE). El Ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. Bruxelles, Roger Velpius & Huberto Antonio, 1611. €6,000 to €8,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: LA FONTAINE (JEAN DE). Fables choisies, mises en vers. Paris, Denys Thierry et Claude Barbin, 1678-1694. €6,000 to €8,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: CERVANTES (MIGUEL DE). El Ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. Madrid, Joaquin Ibarra, 1780. €3,000 to €4,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: DIDEROT (DENIS) ET JEAN LE ROND D'ALEMBERT. Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. Paris, 1751-1765. €15,000 to €20,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: [LIVRE TISSÉ]. LAMARTINE (Alphonse de). Les Laboureurs. Poème tiré de Jocelyn… Lyon, J. A. Henry, 1883. €8,000 to €10,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: [LIVRE TISSÉ]. Livre de prières tissé d'après les enluminures des manuscrits du XIVe au XVIe siècle. Lyon, [A. Roux], 1886. €5,000 to €6,000.
