Goodbye, old friend

At one time in his life, James thought pretty much anything worth eating was made by Hostess.

He spent the spring and summer of 1979 devouring  boxes and boxes of Ho-Hos, in order to collect the baseball cards they printed on the bottom of the box.  And there was nothing better than the crunchy frosting on Hostess cupcakes and Zingers; if you were careful, you could pop it off in one giant slab and save it all until the very end.

Alas, with the demise of Hostess his own kids probably won’t experience these same gastronomic joys.  Dan Barry of the New York Times discusses the ritualistic and symbolic meanings of some soon-to-be-forgotten Hostess brands, and why eating, for better or worse, isn’t all about nutrition.