One hundred years of Oreos: a tribute

Oreo cookies turned 100 today. That’s right — the first Oreo was sold on this day in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1912. Does anybody actually care about that? Well, Colin Mochrie made an appearance at the Toronto Eaton Centre to celebrate the occasion today, so the answer is, yes, some people actually care. Either way, now is a good time to indulge in some useless Oreo trivia. Below, five ways that the sandwich cookie has influenced our culture.

1. Design. Ever marveled at the design emblazoned on each Oreo? No? Pay attention next time. It’s needlessly elaborate. Nobody’s totally sure who, exactly, is behind it, but it is revered. According to the The Atlantic, Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic Paul Goldberger called it “the stuff of legend.”      

2. Music. Ah yes, “Weird Al” Yankovic. Back in the ‘90s, he paid serious homage to the Oreo in order to parody the New Kids on The Block with his song “The White Stuff.” In the words of the man himself: “Nothing gets me high as that sandwich cookie does.”  

3. Art. Oreos apparently make great canvases. Judith G. Klausner, an artist from the U.S., carves these portraits into her cookies. Making art out of an Oreo without eating it? That’s willpower.

4. Tradition. Marketers tried as hard as they could to convince us that eating Oreos is better with the “twist, lick and dunk” technique. There’s even a strategy guide for it. According to Kraft Foods, about half of Oreo eaters prefer that method.

5. Engineering. This guy set to find out whether Oreos can physically withstand being stacked up as high as the Gateway Arch in St. Louis (which stands 630 feet tall). His conclusion? Oreos start to show failure at around 180 lbs., which means that, no, they could not be stacked 15,120 high in a single tower to reach that height. However, if the weight was distributed among two or more cookies at the base, then it could be done. Hey — learning is half the battle.

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