October 4, 2019 • 35 mins
These lightly sweetened cookies played off the popularity of turn-of-the-20th-century traveling circuses – but as circuses have changed, so have animal crackers. Anney and Lauren unpack the history of animal crackers.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to Savor production of I Her Radio
and Stuff Media. I'm Annus and I'm Lauren Vogue OBAM
and today we're talking about animal crackers. We are. Oh yes, yes,
I I was saying before the podcast started. I am
not the biggest fan of animal crackers. You do you
want to go ahead and give the listeners your opinion
(00:29):
about them. I think they're bland. I think they're boring,
And I don't know why you'd waste your time on them, oh,
like like like wasting your calories, like when there's so
many more like flavorful, explosive things to eat, exactly, see,
I I like them, like sometimes I just want something
like nice and simple and um. And we do have
(00:51):
a very large jug of the Staffers brand here in
our office, and so sometimes I'm just like, oh, yeah,
I'm gonna have an afternoon cup of coffee and I'm
going to have some animal crackers. Do you take pleasure
in biting off the head? Is there any like? Oh?
I definitely used to when I was here. These days,
I'm more just like shoving them in my mouth, will
hunching further and further into my laptop. So I just
(01:14):
hear like a rattling animal crackers going everywhere like cooking monster. Yeah,
they seem to be a popular snack in our office. Yeah,
we go through those those bigs. Yeah they're big. Well
maybe I'm of the I'm an outlier. I don't know.
I do have a fan fiction, a favorite fan fiction
(01:34):
that involves animal crackers. For what fandom Harry Potter. Because
he's alone in the cover, he has to find toys.
It's really sad actually, because they're like too bad. Anyway,
this is a fan fiction. I didn't really have his book,
just to make that clear. Um. Also, I have never
been to the circus. Oh wow, Um yeah I have.
(01:57):
I went when I was a kid, you know, back
when they still had like tigers and the whole thing. Um.
I remember being a little bit freaked out by it. Uh.
There were just it was a lot. There were a
lot of like sounds and noises and humans. And uh.
I did not eat animal crackers there. I did have
cotton candy and maybe a snow cone that came in
like a big mug. I still have the mug. It's
(02:19):
pretty cool to handle as a tiger tail. Anyway. Um. Yeah,
we almost got to do a video series with with
the Ringling Brothers right before they shut down. But then
they shut down and we didn't get to do it,
And I'm so mad that I didn't get to go
on their trappies and meet their clowns and talk about
all of the weird like stunt stuff that they do
(02:42):
and all of the acrobatics. And I I feel like
this is a pretty good window into your personality because
I know a lot of people that would be like
a nightmare, but you're just writing I get to go
on the Trappies and talk to the clouds. That was
like one of my first question Like THEO were two
of my big questions. Like when I was on the
(03:02):
phone with these people, I was just like, Okay, how
many clowns can I meet? Can I go on the Trappies?
Like what? All right? I mean we'll figure out the
actual content later. But they were like, I guess, like
like back away, we're gonna put a safety net down.
I was like please do. I mean, I also don't
(03:22):
want to injure myself. I'm going to fail terribly being
on that trappeee. I need to try it. Anyway. We
over on the other show, I do stuff and never
told you we did an episode and partially with your help,
about female clowns, and I was trying to figure out
because I don't have a fear of clowns, even though
I've seen a lot of the the traditional movies that
(03:45):
came from UM. So I was trying to fige out
why I had because when I was a kid, I
never really wanted to go to the circus and it
was dumb though. It was definitely dumb though freaked me
out and I thought, I don't want to go in
you where I probably would have liked it. But yeah,
that's that's definitely what it was. Huh. I Dumbo is upsetting,
(04:09):
It really is. I never watched it, Like once I
graduated from that kind of Disney sect, I feel like
there were some that were aimed towards even younger group. Yeah, yeah,
I never watched it again. Maybe maybe it's time to
revisit it. It is the month of Halloween. But anyway, okay, okay, okay,
let's get to our questions. Animal crackers, what are I think? Well? Uh,
(04:34):
animal crackers are a type of baked good typically made
from wheat flour dough that's lightly sweetened, rolled flat, and
baked until crunchy uh more often called a cookie in
the United States and a biscuit in non American English. Uh.
And what puts the animal in animal crackers is that
they're stamped out in the sort of egg shape of
animals um, usually turn of the twentieth century zoo and
(04:56):
or circus animals like lions and tigers and bears. Am i. Um.
But yeah, your mileage may vary. They're they're typically as
you have said, lightly flavored. Yes. Uh. There's usually a
little bit of like warm spice in there, like a ginger, nutmeg,
a little bit of vanilla or almond or something like that.
(05:16):
But yes, they're fairly plain um, which means that together
with the fun animal shapes they're often associated with, like
picky young children. Um. There are varieties that include a
iced with either like a hard white or pink icing,
topped with sprinkles, usually little ball sprinkles. Um. They can
be dipped in chocolate or perhaps made with something like
(05:36):
cocoa in the dough for a little bit of a
little bit more of a flavor, bit more of a kick,
not a whole lot a little bit um. Yeah. And
there's sort of like a like a low butter shortbread,
just real light and crisp. It's it's a rolled dough cookie,
sometimes with layers of rolled dough stacked and rolled together
to create like really thin, crisp layers within the cookie.
(05:57):
That's a process called laminating. When you could see our
episode on croissants for more about that. And these days,
the ingredients and processing for mass produced animal crackers at
any rate is pretty much identical to that of graham crackers, um,
except grahams are usually dyed brown and more frequently maybe
cooked a little bit longer, flavored with with cinnamon, and
(06:18):
of course are not shaped like animals. But otherwise, yeah,
it's pretty much the same. Dough shaking my head. I
tried to tryump side by side. It's gonna blow y'ell's mind,
I swear, Oh my gosh. Well, what about the nutrition?
Will that blow our minds? I mean, I don't know.
It depends. It depends on your threshold for mind. Yeah,
(06:42):
I guess for for a grain based snack, they're they're
fairly low and fat and sugar, so they're like pretty
low in calories if that's the thing that you're looking for.
They have a little bit of protein, from the wheat
plus a few vitamins and minerals, so you know, like
for a cookie, they're fine. Yeah, they certainly lean into that,
and they're advertising, Oh my gosh, they do. We're not
a cookie, we're an animal cracker. Crackers are healthy. I'm
(07:06):
confused about the entire marketing of that. Yeah, yeah, me too.
I think a lot of people are. If we look
at numbers each year here in the U. S. And
seventeen other countries, around forty million packages of animal crackers
are sold. For some folks, these crackers are extremely nostalgic
from what I read, and I'd say that they have
a certain nostalgia factor for me. Yeah, it's interesting because
(07:30):
there has been a lot of um specifically with Nibisco
and Barnums animal crackers. There's been a lot of animal
cracker news lately there and Nabisca has been pretty that
they won't say exactly how many have been sold as
of like most recent numbers, But I just find that interesting.
They're like, no, no, no, no, need for you to
(07:50):
know about that, but this is the most recent numbers
we have. Um as the Biscuit was producing some seven
million animal crackers her day. UM the category can be
a bit wider than what you might be thinking, though,
things like goldfish and Teddy Grams are sometimes considered as
animal crackers. No, yeah, I was like, nope, no, totally
(08:11):
totally different products, different, different consistency, different radio. I'm taking
stand it's not the same thing. Just because their animal
shape does not make them animal crackers. Yes, it's more
than that they are. Until recently, each Nibisco brand box
had twenty two crackers and nineteen different animals. Two bears,
(08:32):
one standing and one sitting, a camel, a cougar, a bison,
an elephant, a draft, a hippo, hyena, kangarooal, a lion,
a monkey, rhinoceros, a seal, a sheep, a tiger, and
a zebra. Again, there's been a lot of updates to this.
There has, so I tried to like make sure that
they haven't changed everything. But this is what I found
the most recent, which is recent. A lot of these
(08:55):
animals were and are chosen based on the size, fragility,
and ability to hopefully survive transport intact. Some past animals
have included the walrus, the red fox, the antelope, jaguar,
and American elk. More on some of those later. I
just did the that's very particular. Yes, that is from
(09:17):
what we do in the Shadows, and I love it
so much. It's like a simple line, but it's one
of my favorite lines of the movies. Yes it's a
total accident, but I'm in my Halloween horror mine. Yes, um,
and yes, we do have a big jug of the
is that staffers? How did you say? Oh? I said staffers,
(09:38):
but I have no idea how it's pronounced. I wasn't
thinking about the staffers. Uh, let's say staffers. Sure. Apologies
to anyone out there if you know the right answer
to this question. Right, And let us now. This company
that we can't pronounce the name of, by the way,
does have an animal cracker identifier up on their website,
(09:58):
which I find delightful. Um. And according to it, their
current animals are a bear, buffalo, camel, cat, cow, donkey, elephant, goat, hippo, horse, lion, rhino,
and tiger. Mm hmm. I'm going to look this up
afterwards because there's some I'm like, how well I know
the difference between the cat and the tiger. Oh, I
(10:22):
mean the lion. I guess the lion has a mate
probably okay, alright, alright, alright. According to Mental Falls as sixteen,
if you look at all the other cracker brands combined
with Nibisco, fifty four animals have been made into animal cracker.
For I feel like I'm made it. If I was
an animal, I'm gone. It's an animal cracker. It's like
the same thing with the Harry Potter, the cars, the
(10:44):
chocolate frogs. You've made it if you're if you're on
the car, exactly exactly. The Numbisco factory in New Jersey
uses eight thousand miles of string a year for animal
cracker packaging, or they used to. Nowadays the box comes
with a cardboard handle as a saving measure, and a
lot of people aren't happy about this. You can still
find some of the boxes with the string, but if
(11:05):
you get them off of Amazon or a lot of
the online sites, it's a little card a little cardboard.
I can't say that I have a distinct opinion about
this difference me either, but I can see the string like,
I feel like that's a bit cuter. We'll get into
why they chose the string and in mere moments. Um
(11:29):
April is National Animal Crackers Day, and I totally forgot
about the animal crackers in my soup Shirley Temple song
until we did this episode, and now it's in my
brain and will not go away. I haven't seen that
some curly top, right, Yeah, I haven't seen that one,
and so I have no idea. I had no idea
that this existed until we started doing research for this episode.
(11:51):
But I can picture in my mind, Da how the
song probably goes, and I'm probably gonna wind up listening
to it and regretting my decision. I feel this is
kind of an amazing moment. I can't believe you've escaped this.
It's very uh, it's an airworm. I believe you is
an earworm. But that about brings us to a history segment.
(12:15):
But first it brings us to a quick break for
a word from our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you sponsoring, Yes,
thank you. So animal crackers in history, yes so. Going
(12:36):
way back on Norse and Germanic winter holiday traditions included
a baking breads and later cookie type stuff like gingerbreads
into animal shapes. By medieval times, this was a very
like posh and sophisticated art form, very very expensive. By
the Middle of the eighteen hundreds, industrial manufacturing had made
(12:57):
the process much much, much cheaper, and the made these
products more varied and accessible and widespread. Yes, and you
can see our Gingerbread episode which we hilariously published in
the middle of the summer. Uh for more on that.
I guess it was for people in the southern hemisphere,
you know, Christmas in July um and like super quickly.
(13:18):
The circus in its earliest form is believed to go
back at least as far as twelve fifty BC. In
medieval Europe, tightrope walking was a banned by the church,
thought to be an act of witchcraft. Oh wow, that's
that's terrible great. At the same time, I had to
include it. The modern circus is a more recent thing, though,
(13:40):
I thought to have originated around seventeen sixty s and
I went on such a rabbit hole. The history of
the circus is fascinating. Oh yeah, oh man, I'm like,
we have to do an episode on that. And then
I'm like, we're a food show. I'm not sure, how
can we make this happen? Oh. Towards the end of
the nineteenth century, the British introduced sweet cookies or biscuits
(14:01):
molded into the shape of various animals, and these cookies
were called animal biscuits, or sometimes just animals. The first
known recipe came to us courtesy of J. D. Junahan
and eighteen seventy seven's Secrets of the Bakers and Confectioner's Trade.
It was for a big batch, I hope, with ingredients
like one barrel of flour, sixteen pounds of large, forty
(14:23):
pounds of sugar, six and three quarters gallons of milk,
twelve ounces of soda, and eight ounces of ammonia. The
first U. S company to manufacture animal crackers was Stafford
Biscuit Company in eighteen seventy one. They reportedly used the
same recipe to this day. In eighteen seventy six, Walter G.
Wilson touted animal crackers he called zoologicals at the Centennial
(14:47):
Exposition in Philadelphia. This brings us to nineteen o two,
the first year the National Biscuit Company, now shot into Nibiscuoe,
began producing Barnum's Animals, so named for P. T. Barnum,
of course, the showman and circus master who shows frequently
exhibited so called exotic animals in cages and that circus
(15:08):
aesthetic translated to the iconic packaging the colorful circus car box,
complete with the wheels, the door that you could pop out,
and all of it topped with that string so that
it could later serve as a Christmas ornament. Yeah. Um,
once the animal crackers were gone. Obviously, probably that was
actually one of the main inspirations behind the packaging and
(15:29):
color choice of primarily red and green. It was a
Christmas promotion. Most children seemed to think that it was
more of a purse situation. Now that's definitely what I thought. Um,
and this this box would run you a cool five cents. Yes.
Prior to this packaging, the crackers were frequently bought in
bulk from a barrel, and that's where we get the
(15:50):
phrase cracker barrel. Blew my mind. That's where my threshold is.
And then commercial designer Sydney as Stern, he's the one
who came up with the signature now retired design spoiler
alert in nine. He was the great grand uncle of
Daisy Aliotto, who wrote an article about him and his
(16:11):
design over at Fox and it's really worth checking out
because it delves into what makes real art and the
title of that article if you're trying to look it up.
Is the big problem with the animal crackers cage free
box design? Yes, yeah, it's it's really it was interesting.
I hadn't really considered just you know, when you're a
(16:34):
commercial artist and it's teamed, it's not real art. It's
kind of the same with music when you quote sell out.
It was really it was really cool, cool read awesome. Um. Yeah,
and uh And Sydney Stern is a storied artists as
the article goes into him, he's the same guy who
created the original Ritz Crackers and shredded wheat boxes as well.
And I didn't realize that the name Ritz was chosen
(16:57):
because well, from what I read briefly that with you know,
you're living in the Rits, just like the Depression. That's cool.
Of note, Barnum's likeness was not used on the box
and he did not get anything like royalty or licensing fees.
This is incredible to me. Yeah, because his name is
(17:19):
right there, I know, and it's clearly like him there referencing.
There's no one else could be. It's not like all
that other Barnum and he's famous for that. Right. If
we step back a bit, to Barnum figured out how
to get his circus across the ocean in order to
do a tour of Europe. Manufacturers in England already making
(17:40):
those animals, those crackers slash cookies we're talking about earlier.
I saw a marketing opportunity and start to use circus
animal shapes based on the animals featured in Barnum's Circus.
They migrated back to the US these circus animal shaped cookies,
where Nibisco jumped on the train to cash in on
the popularity of the circus, until they were called Barnum's Animals.
(18:04):
Then the name changed to Barnum's Animal Crackers and just
f y I because I got really confused about this.
The Ringling Brothers acquired Barnum and Bailey Circus in nineteen
o six. Right, animal crackers were a pretty big part
of our pop culture. In nineteen thirty, the Marx Brothers
released a musical film called Animal Crackers, and then in
(18:25):
Curly Top with that Shirley Temples song Animal Crackers in
My Soup came out and although I have not listened
to what I've read, sars Um, it's it's a it's
a playful song. Explaining that you know, since she learned
the alphabet from alphabet soup, you know, she started adding
animal crackers to soup to learn her animals. Um. And
apparently Temple's parents got so many letters from parents of
(18:45):
fans around the country complaining that their kids kept trying
to put animal crackers in savory soups that her father,
George said, Shirley knows the crackers are too sweet for that.
She knows the combination would taste terrible. Surely saves the
animal crackers for after dinner. That might be apocryphal, but
I I like the idea of him like fed up
(19:08):
row with letters into the air and releasing this statement
public got a podium. She knows what she's doing. Look, look,
I don't need to hear any more of your complaints.
This wasn't serious. It was fiction. That's fair. You know,
I'd probably be annoyed too. Um. And this was the
(19:29):
circuses heyday, before the World Wars and tightened restrictions around
passports and the advent of new entertainment options like television.
The circus was really big. Oh yeah, absolutely much much later,
still talking about pop culture, animal crackers are a topic
of discussion in the episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
(19:50):
Oh yeah, well, because they're they're they're talking about animal crackers,
and I think I think Willow goes like, I don't know,
like Willis Andrew talking about it, and one of them
is like, is like why why the monkey the only
one that gets to wear pants? And the other one
is like, yeah, like, don't the other animals feel like
a little bit ripped off? Like you know, like like
like where's like doesn't the hippo ever go like, where's
(20:11):
my hippo dignity? Yeah, it's a paraphrase. It's pretty spot on. Though.
Impressed impressed with your Buffy knowledge every day. Oh gosh,
you too can have supreme Buffy knowledge if you just,
over the course of many years watch the series upwards
of five times. Okay, I'll get to work on get
on it right away. I like that's the type of
(20:34):
homework I like. Um. So, at first, these animal shapes
were a bit um. They required some imagination to figure
out what they were. The shapes got more distinct in
the nineteen fifties with the installation of rotary dies. Yeah,
these dies cannot only stamp out the shape of the animal,
but but detail onto the surface of the animal very fancy.
(21:00):
Over the years, Nibisco did a few collaborations that showcase
animals outside of the circus car, including one that raised
money for tiger conservation with fashion designer Lily Pulitzer An
They mix things up a bit from time to time,
like with their marine animals collection. In fact, over thirty
seven different animals have been in animal cracker form at
one time if we look at Barnum's specifically, but only
(21:22):
the bear, lion, elephant, antiger survived for most of the
product's lifetime. Um And Yes, despite being featured in the
Shirley Temple song, rabbits were never an animal cracker option.
I bet they got letters about that. I'm sure. I'm
sure the positive Barnum's Animal Crackers introduced a line of
endangered species animal crackers to support the World Wildlife Fund,
(21:47):
animals like Hawaiian monk seals and Komodo dragons. Nibisco's product
manager at the time told The New York Times, what
do people like about animal crackers, barting off the heads.
Our hope was that children will line them up, mashed
them up with the names on the box, learn about them,
and then decapitate them. I don't teach them to safe
(22:08):
endangered species. It'll teach them to love endangered species, and
especially their heads. They're tasty, very important, tasty heads one
of the most important parts. I would say critical. I
love that code. I think it's hilarious. It's beautiful. For
the one anniversary in two thousand two, Nabisco added a koala.
(22:32):
Based on consumer feedback, the koala beat out the cobra, penguin,
and walrus. Apparently the penguin was a close second. It
was heated. Um and Yeah. This was a part of
an integrated marketing campaign that employed like zero traditional advertising
but was apparently very successful. Um. They generated three d
and forty four million media impressions and increased consumer awareness
(22:55):
by during the campaign's first stage and during second which
I can cite to you because they won a Silver
Anvil Award for the campaign in two thousand three from
the Public Relations Society of America. Which is this whole thing.
The whole thing. Yeah, I am fascinated by stuff like
this because I remember when Eminem's did it. I think
(23:17):
I was in middle school. They've probably done another one
since then, but the one I remember, I was in
middle school, and it was like new color to the eminem's.
It was pink, heal and like a white purple. And
all of all my friends and myself we were all in.
We were voting every day. We were like, we just
gotta be to It's very to my existence. It's not
like I eight more eminem's after that, don't I don't
(23:40):
remember which one one see, I don't even remember which
one one, but like it just at the time, it's
very important, felt very serious. I don't know. They were
asking for your opinion and you were giving every day
every day. I'm like, it's still to you, it's still
you can vote once a day. Anyway, let's talk about
what we've kind of been alluding to this whole episode.
(24:02):
Some recent animal cracker news in Peta, People for the
Ethical Treatment of Animals contacted Nibisco's parent company, Montalais International
about changing the packaging from the circus cage the circus
box car cage. Right, yeah, because box car the animals
are in cages, yes, right. Peter was like no, no, no, yes.
(24:25):
They sent several design ideas of the animals in their
natural habitats, roaming free, and the company agreed to the redesign,
updating it to feature a lion, draft gorilla, and a
zebra in the savannah with trees and grass and background.
So they're kind of like in the wild. Yeah, they're
they're frolicking. Maybe you know, a little bit more abreast
than they normally would be, but sure. This was after
(24:49):
years of criticism and protests from groups like Peter and
As the Humane Society, as well as shifting views around
the ethics of using captive animals for our human entertain
Oh yeah lutely. This pushback resulted in barn Oman the
Ringling Brothers retiring their elephant acts, but due to slumping
ticket sales, the Ringling Brothers Circus closed in after one
(25:11):
and forty six years in operation. On top of that,
over eighty jurisdictions in thirty one states have cracked down
on the use of wild animals in entertainment, which is
a wonderful thing. I can't I can't argue with any
of that. No, UM still still sad about the clowns.
The trappiece um uh in Um and independently produced computer
(25:33):
generated animated film called Animal Crackers was set to premiere,
but a number of studio deals have fallen through and
although it's totally complete and has been for years now,
it still has not been released. Um. It's it's about
this box of magical animal crackers that that if you
eat one, it will change you into the animal in question, um,
(25:55):
which a family then uses to like revive a circus
um because it's not animal abuse if it's really people,
not animals that are performing. Yeah, this could be read
as a horror movie if I know when you come
back from yeah no, no, no, no, you eat that,
you eat you eat a person shaped cracker if you
(26:16):
want to come back. Yeah, Okay, that's a whole thing. Okay,
you're not stuck as like a gorilla. I mean it could.
You couldn't like it, say, I don't know. I'm just saying, yeah,
I'm not. I've only seen like a two minute trailer.
I'm not deeply aware of the specifics of the mechanics
of this. We've got to get to the bottom of it.
(26:37):
I saw that. I'm glad you said that because I
saw that come up. But I was like, was this
a movie or notice this like a parody? I couldn't
figure it out. It's both a movie and currently not
so Unfortunately it is a development. Hell it's okay, yeah,
I mean yeah, but it's still probably very upsetting for
the creators. But oh yeah, oh yeah, huh, well this
(27:03):
is all like recent animal cracker lots happening in this world.
You can still find a lot of opinions about the redesign.
You know, if you like animal crackers, that the taste
hasn't changed. It basically has not. No, yeah, very nostalgic taste, yes, apparently.
(27:25):
I did have an interesting conversation with actually one of
the female clowns, and she was just saying, now that
the difference in our generations of um, when older folks
see clowns and they're like, oh, clowns like a positive
zoo circus experience. But for people kind of our ages
like clowns, no, because we don't have our A lot
(27:48):
of us don't have the same circus positive experience. Yeah. Yeah,
I've there were clowns at the circus that I attended
as a child. But I have a lot more recent
experience with people in clowning who do like professional clowning shows,
um and and incorporate bits of this this historical stuff
(28:10):
into it, and and like I have been literally moved
to tears By like mime clown work, and it's it
can be really beautiful you guys. Um, I mean it's
also really funny to just get to say, like some
of my best friends are clowns, Like, don't discriminate against clowns. Yeah.
I like that, Um, but it's true. It's true they
(28:33):
can be they can be so delightful. And I don't know,
it's a whole huh. I go go listen to go
listen to the Spinty episode. Yeah, it's really togic. I
I felt like I learned a lot because I just
kind of hadn't had any experience with clowns. Yeah. I
like how this Animal Cracker episode is turning into pro clown.
We're pro clown here we are. This food podcast is
(28:59):
staunchly clown. Perhaps we should end it now have a
little bit more for you. We do, but first we've
got one more quick break for a word from our sponsor,
(29:21):
and we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you, And
we're back with wrong Lion. Scary. I can't. I just
need to work a lot on my impressions. Oh I saw,
I saw the lion. I just wanted to add a
little meal at the end. Oh thank you, Oh you're welcome.
(29:45):
I'll say, I'll take it. Confused us all excellent. Indeed,
that's the best of the best. Respot Caitlin wrote, I
recently listened to the Lavender episode, and when you all
start talking about the lavender festival, I was reminded of
a very funny memory. A few years ago. When I
lived in Omaha, Nebraska, I worked for and attended a
local young adult group called Great Adventure Ministries, around fifty
(30:07):
to sixty people. We were always on the lookout for
fun event ideas for the group, barn dances, ski trips,
orchard tours, etcetera. One day, one of our members heard
about a lavender farm that was about an hour away
in the Lowest Hills and decided we should do an
outing there, pack a big picnic lunch, and make a
day of it. She found a photo of lavender and
bloom online and posted the event on Facebook, leaving at
(30:29):
public so that people could invite friends. The next morning,
she checked the event and they were over four hundred
people marked as interested or coming, and she had several
messages from strangers in places like California and Michigan asking
her what the best hotels to stay in the area
would be understandably, she panicked. By that evening, I think
(30:49):
the count had gone up to almost nine hundred people interested,
some of which were from Great Britain. Over the next
few days, we edited the event and contacted all of
the people that to fly in and let them know
that it wasn't the type of event that they were
expecting and it probably wouldn't be worth it to fly
in for since it was just supposed to be a
small group outing, not a festival. We ended up changing
(31:12):
the event to be a fundraiser for a local anti
trafficking group and had about people attend. I think the
best part of the whole thing was that she had
planned the event too early in the year and the
lavender bushes weren't even in bloom. We also discovered at
the event that lavendar serup and iced Earl Gray tea
is delicious. I bet it is. It is people are
(31:35):
passionate about lavender. They are. That's good to know. If
I ever needed to draw crowd created Facebook event, Yes,
picture of lavender, that's it. Yeah, seems to be the
key ingredients, Kyrie wrote, and I hope that I'm saying
your name right. A while back, I started getting up
(31:55):
before the crack of dawn to run why. I still
don't know the answer to that, And I figured that
having a cup of coffee before I go would help
knock out those lingering thoughts asleep from my eyes. Now,
I buy cheap instant coffee because my brain and my
wallet aren't too concerned with coffee filters, grinders and all
the accoutremal that proper coffee needs. Now, even I, a
coffee greenhorn, will tell you that instant coffee is not
(32:16):
that great, even with the big, huge, mounded heaps of
brown sugar I put in. But I was content to
deal with, because you know, the goal was to wake up,
not to experience hot liquid nirvana. Until one day I
remembered an old angle storic commercial showing the different ways
bidders were used. A few dashes to help season meat,
a few sprinkles to ice cream, a splashed cocktails, and
(32:37):
a shake or two to hot coffee. I was intrigued,
and the very next morning I had enough brain power
to remember to include some in my cup, and y'all,
even through the alluring siren call of my warm bed,
I could taste the potential of what instant coffee wishes
it could be. There's no bitterness. The citrus notes from
the bidders blended so nicely with the smell of the coffee,
(32:58):
and I could taste car mole, imagine caramel and coffee.
Who knew, well, I certainly didn't, and I knew what
I had to do next, a deep dive into the
House of Angustora. Besides the museum, which only does tours
in groups, so bummer for an introvert, and the various RUMs,
there is a cookbook, like an actual cookbook, with food
(33:21):
recipes and not just cocktails. The recipes themselves lean more
to a Western Continental menu, with appetizers, soups and salads,
pasta and rice, meat and poultry, and desserts, and of
course suggested cocktails to go along with some recipes. There
are recipes like Angustora beef pies, orange rice puloff, chilled
cucumber soup, marinated chicken breasts, and classic chilled grandita. I
(33:45):
started doing this immediately because I also used in the morning.
Because Laura knows I've given up on our work coffee machine.
We're broken up forever. I never want to deal with
that thing again, um and working now okay, all right,
all right, No I'm not gonna you know, but you
(34:06):
have to. You have to live your own life. If
I see that screen, please wait dot dot dot one
more time. It's gonna be like office space up in
here anyway. So this is good for me, this email,
and it is nice. It does add like a little
like brightness and the smells good. Huh. I would recommend
(34:27):
trying it. Yeah, yeah, I'll, um, you know, look like
an even weirder human than I already looked. I'll bring
some in to use on the office coffee, and then
you should leave a note that said, don't judge. Listener
told us to do this because we are already seen
as a m Yeah, that's just that sounds just that,
(34:51):
just that noise pretty much sums it up around the office. Yeah, yeah,
I think so. Well. Thanks to both of them for
writing in. If you would like to write to us,
we would love to hear from you. Our email is
hello at savor pod dot com. You can also find
us on social media. We are on Facebook, Instagram, and
(35:12):
Twitter at savor pod. We do hope to hear from you.
Savor is a production of I Heart Radio. And stuff Media.
For more podcasts from My Heart Radio, you can visit
the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our super
producers Dylan Vagan and Andrew Howard with kind help today
from j J. Pauseway. Thanks to you for listening, and
we hope that lots more good things are coming your way.
Hello, and welcome to Savor production of I Her Radio
and Stuff Media. I'm Annus and I'm Lauren Vogue OBAM
and today we're talking about animal crackers. We are. Oh yes, yes,
I I was saying before the podcast started. I am
not the biggest fan of animal crackers. You do you
want to go ahead and give the listeners your opinion
(00:29):
about them. I think they're bland. I think they're boring,
And I don't know why you'd waste your time on them, oh,
like like like wasting your calories, like when there's so
many more like flavorful, explosive things to eat, exactly, see,
I I like them, like sometimes I just want something
like nice and simple and um. And we do have
(00:51):
a very large jug of the Staffers brand here in
our office, and so sometimes I'm just like, oh, yeah,
I'm gonna have an afternoon cup of coffee and I'm
going to have some animal crackers. Do you take pleasure
in biting off the head? Is there any like? Oh?
I definitely used to when I was here. These days,
I'm more just like shoving them in my mouth, will
hunching further and further into my laptop. So I just
(01:14):
hear like a rattling animal crackers going everywhere like cooking monster. Yeah,
they seem to be a popular snack in our office. Yeah,
we go through those those bigs. Yeah they're big. Well
maybe I'm of the I'm an outlier. I don't know.
I do have a fan fiction, a favorite fan fiction
(01:34):
that involves animal crackers. For what fandom Harry Potter. Because
he's alone in the cover, he has to find toys.
It's really sad actually, because they're like too bad. Anyway,
this is a fan fiction. I didn't really have his book,
just to make that clear. Um. Also, I have never
been to the circus. Oh wow, Um yeah I have.
(01:57):
I went when I was a kid, you know, back
when they still had like tigers and the whole thing. Um.
I remember being a little bit freaked out by it. Uh.
There were just it was a lot. There were a
lot of like sounds and noises and humans. And uh.
I did not eat animal crackers there. I did have
cotton candy and maybe a snow cone that came in
like a big mug. I still have the mug. It's
(02:19):
pretty cool to handle as a tiger tail. Anyway. Um. Yeah,
we almost got to do a video series with with
the Ringling Brothers right before they shut down. But then
they shut down and we didn't get to do it,
And I'm so mad that I didn't get to go
on their trappies and meet their clowns and talk about
all of the weird like stunt stuff that they do
(02:42):
and all of the acrobatics. And I I feel like
this is a pretty good window into your personality because
I know a lot of people that would be like
a nightmare, but you're just writing I get to go
on the Trappies and talk to the clouds. That was
like one of my first question Like THEO were two
of my big questions. Like when I was on the
(03:02):
phone with these people, I was just like, Okay, how
many clowns can I meet? Can I go on the Trappies?
Like what? All right? I mean we'll figure out the
actual content later. But they were like, I guess, like
like back away, we're gonna put a safety net down.
I was like please do. I mean, I also don't
(03:22):
want to injure myself. I'm going to fail terribly being
on that trappeee. I need to try it. Anyway. We
over on the other show, I do stuff and never
told you we did an episode and partially with your help,
about female clowns, and I was trying to figure out
because I don't have a fear of clowns, even though
I've seen a lot of the the traditional movies that
(03:45):
came from UM. So I was trying to fige out
why I had because when I was a kid, I
never really wanted to go to the circus and it
was dumb though. It was definitely dumb though freaked me
out and I thought, I don't want to go in
you where I probably would have liked it. But yeah,
that's that's definitely what it was. Huh. I Dumbo is upsetting,
(04:09):
It really is. I never watched it, Like once I
graduated from that kind of Disney sect, I feel like
there were some that were aimed towards even younger group. Yeah, yeah,
I never watched it again. Maybe maybe it's time to
revisit it. It is the month of Halloween. But anyway, okay, okay, okay,
let's get to our questions. Animal crackers, what are I think? Well? Uh,
(04:34):
animal crackers are a type of baked good typically made
from wheat flour dough that's lightly sweetened, rolled flat, and
baked until crunchy uh more often called a cookie in
the United States and a biscuit in non American English. Uh.
And what puts the animal in animal crackers is that
they're stamped out in the sort of egg shape of
animals um, usually turn of the twentieth century zoo and
(04:56):
or circus animals like lions and tigers and bears. Am i. Um.
But yeah, your mileage may vary. They're they're typically as
you have said, lightly flavored. Yes. Uh. There's usually a
little bit of like warm spice in there, like a ginger, nutmeg,
a little bit of vanilla or almond or something like that.
(05:16):
But yes, they're fairly plain um, which means that together
with the fun animal shapes they're often associated with, like
picky young children. Um. There are varieties that include a
iced with either like a hard white or pink icing,
topped with sprinkles, usually little ball sprinkles. Um. They can
be dipped in chocolate or perhaps made with something like
(05:36):
cocoa in the dough for a little bit of a
little bit more of a flavor, bit more of a kick,
not a whole lot a little bit um. Yeah. And
there's sort of like a like a low butter shortbread,
just real light and crisp. It's it's a rolled dough cookie,
sometimes with layers of rolled dough stacked and rolled together
to create like really thin, crisp layers within the cookie.
(05:57):
That's a process called laminating. When you could see our
episode on croissants for more about that. And these days,
the ingredients and processing for mass produced animal crackers at
any rate is pretty much identical to that of graham crackers, um,
except grahams are usually dyed brown and more frequently maybe
cooked a little bit longer, flavored with with cinnamon, and
(06:18):
of course are not shaped like animals. But otherwise, yeah,
it's pretty much the same. Dough shaking my head. I
tried to tryump side by side. It's gonna blow y'ell's mind,
I swear, Oh my gosh. Well, what about the nutrition?
Will that blow our minds? I mean, I don't know.
It depends. It depends on your threshold for mind. Yeah,
(06:42):
I guess for for a grain based snack, they're they're
fairly low and fat and sugar, so they're like pretty
low in calories if that's the thing that you're looking for.
They have a little bit of protein, from the wheat
plus a few vitamins and minerals, so you know, like
for a cookie, they're fine. Yeah, they certainly lean into that,
and they're advertising, Oh my gosh, they do. We're not
a cookie, we're an animal cracker. Crackers are healthy. I'm
(07:06):
confused about the entire marketing of that. Yeah, yeah, me too.
I think a lot of people are. If we look
at numbers each year here in the U. S. And
seventeen other countries, around forty million packages of animal crackers
are sold. For some folks, these crackers are extremely nostalgic
from what I read, and I'd say that they have
a certain nostalgia factor for me. Yeah, it's interesting because
(07:30):
there has been a lot of um specifically with Nibisco
and Barnums animal crackers. There's been a lot of animal
cracker news lately there and Nabisca has been pretty that
they won't say exactly how many have been sold as
of like most recent numbers, But I just find that interesting.
They're like, no, no, no, no, need for you to
(07:50):
know about that, but this is the most recent numbers
we have. Um as the Biscuit was producing some seven
million animal crackers her day. UM the category can be
a bit wider than what you might be thinking, though,
things like goldfish and Teddy Grams are sometimes considered as
animal crackers. No, yeah, I was like, nope, no, totally
(08:11):
totally different products, different, different consistency, different radio. I'm taking
stand it's not the same thing. Just because their animal
shape does not make them animal crackers. Yes, it's more
than that they are. Until recently, each Nibisco brand box
had twenty two crackers and nineteen different animals. Two bears,
(08:32):
one standing and one sitting, a camel, a cougar, a bison,
an elephant, a draft, a hippo, hyena, kangarooal, a lion,
a monkey, rhinoceros, a seal, a sheep, a tiger, and
a zebra. Again, there's been a lot of updates to this.
There has, so I tried to like make sure that
they haven't changed everything. But this is what I found
the most recent, which is recent. A lot of these
(08:55):
animals were and are chosen based on the size, fragility,
and ability to hopefully survive transport intact. Some past animals
have included the walrus, the red fox, the antelope, jaguar,
and American elk. More on some of those later. I
just did the that's very particular. Yes, that is from
(09:17):
what we do in the Shadows, and I love it
so much. It's like a simple line, but it's one
of my favorite lines of the movies. Yes it's a
total accident, but I'm in my Halloween horror mine. Yes, um,
and yes, we do have a big jug of the
is that staffers? How did you say? Oh? I said staffers,
(09:38):
but I have no idea how it's pronounced. I wasn't
thinking about the staffers. Uh, let's say staffers. Sure. Apologies
to anyone out there if you know the right answer
to this question. Right, And let us now. This company
that we can't pronounce the name of, by the way,
does have an animal cracker identifier up on their website,
(09:58):
which I find delightful. Um. And according to it, their
current animals are a bear, buffalo, camel, cat, cow, donkey, elephant, goat, hippo, horse, lion, rhino,
and tiger. Mm hmm. I'm going to look this up
afterwards because there's some I'm like, how well I know
the difference between the cat and the tiger. Oh, I
(10:22):
mean the lion. I guess the lion has a mate
probably okay, alright, alright, alright. According to Mental Falls as sixteen,
if you look at all the other cracker brands combined
with Nibisco, fifty four animals have been made into animal cracker.
For I feel like I'm made it. If I was
an animal, I'm gone. It's an animal cracker. It's like
the same thing with the Harry Potter, the cars, the
(10:44):
chocolate frogs. You've made it if you're if you're on
the car, exactly exactly. The Numbisco factory in New Jersey
uses eight thousand miles of string a year for animal
cracker packaging, or they used to. Nowadays the box comes
with a cardboard handle as a saving measure, and a
lot of people aren't happy about this. You can still
find some of the boxes with the string, but if
(11:05):
you get them off of Amazon or a lot of
the online sites, it's a little card a little cardboard.
I can't say that I have a distinct opinion about
this difference me either, but I can see the string like,
I feel like that's a bit cuter. We'll get into
why they chose the string and in mere moments. Um
(11:29):
April is National Animal Crackers Day, and I totally forgot
about the animal crackers in my soup Shirley Temple song
until we did this episode, and now it's in my
brain and will not go away. I haven't seen that
some curly top, right, Yeah, I haven't seen that one,
and so I have no idea. I had no idea
that this existed until we started doing research for this episode.
(11:51):
But I can picture in my mind, Da how the
song probably goes, and I'm probably gonna wind up listening
to it and regretting my decision. I feel this is
kind of an amazing moment. I can't believe you've escaped this.
It's very uh, it's an airworm. I believe you is
an earworm. But that about brings us to a history segment.
(12:15):
But first it brings us to a quick break for
a word from our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you sponsoring, Yes,
thank you. So animal crackers in history, yes so. Going
(12:36):
way back on Norse and Germanic winter holiday traditions included
a baking breads and later cookie type stuff like gingerbreads
into animal shapes. By medieval times, this was a very
like posh and sophisticated art form, very very expensive. By
the Middle of the eighteen hundreds, industrial manufacturing had made
(12:57):
the process much much, much cheaper, and the made these
products more varied and accessible and widespread. Yes, and you
can see our Gingerbread episode which we hilariously published in
the middle of the summer. Uh for more on that.
I guess it was for people in the southern hemisphere,
you know, Christmas in July um and like super quickly.
(13:18):
The circus in its earliest form is believed to go
back at least as far as twelve fifty BC. In
medieval Europe, tightrope walking was a banned by the church,
thought to be an act of witchcraft. Oh wow, that's
that's terrible great. At the same time, I had to
include it. The modern circus is a more recent thing, though,
(13:40):
I thought to have originated around seventeen sixty s and
I went on such a rabbit hole. The history of
the circus is fascinating. Oh yeah, oh man, I'm like,
we have to do an episode on that. And then
I'm like, we're a food show. I'm not sure, how
can we make this happen? Oh. Towards the end of
the nineteenth century, the British introduced sweet cookies or biscuits
(14:01):
molded into the shape of various animals, and these cookies
were called animal biscuits, or sometimes just animals. The first
known recipe came to us courtesy of J. D. Junahan
and eighteen seventy seven's Secrets of the Bakers and Confectioner's Trade.
It was for a big batch, I hope, with ingredients
like one barrel of flour, sixteen pounds of large, forty
(14:23):
pounds of sugar, six and three quarters gallons of milk,
twelve ounces of soda, and eight ounces of ammonia. The
first U. S company to manufacture animal crackers was Stafford
Biscuit Company in eighteen seventy one. They reportedly used the
same recipe to this day. In eighteen seventy six, Walter G.
Wilson touted animal crackers he called zoologicals at the Centennial
(14:47):
Exposition in Philadelphia. This brings us to nineteen o two,
the first year the National Biscuit Company, now shot into Nibiscuoe,
began producing Barnum's Animals, so named for P. T. Barnum,
of course, the showman and circus master who shows frequently
exhibited so called exotic animals in cages and that circus
(15:08):
aesthetic translated to the iconic packaging the colorful circus car box,
complete with the wheels, the door that you could pop out,
and all of it topped with that string so that
it could later serve as a Christmas ornament. Yeah. Um,
once the animal crackers were gone. Obviously, probably that was
actually one of the main inspirations behind the packaging and
(15:29):
color choice of primarily red and green. It was a
Christmas promotion. Most children seemed to think that it was
more of a purse situation. Now that's definitely what I thought. Um,
and this this box would run you a cool five cents. Yes.
Prior to this packaging, the crackers were frequently bought in
bulk from a barrel, and that's where we get the
(15:50):
phrase cracker barrel. Blew my mind. That's where my threshold is.
And then commercial designer Sydney as Stern, he's the one
who came up with the signature now retired design spoiler
alert in nine. He was the great grand uncle of
Daisy Aliotto, who wrote an article about him and his
(16:11):
design over at Fox and it's really worth checking out
because it delves into what makes real art and the
title of that article if you're trying to look it up.
Is the big problem with the animal crackers cage free
box design? Yes, yeah, it's it's really it was interesting.
I hadn't really considered just you know, when you're a
(16:34):
commercial artist and it's teamed, it's not real art. It's
kind of the same with music when you quote sell out.
It was really it was really cool, cool read awesome. Um. Yeah,
and uh And Sydney Stern is a storied artists as
the article goes into him, he's the same guy who
created the original Ritz Crackers and shredded wheat boxes as well.
And I didn't realize that the name Ritz was chosen
(16:57):
because well, from what I read briefly that with you know,
you're living in the Rits, just like the Depression. That's cool.
Of note, Barnum's likeness was not used on the box
and he did not get anything like royalty or licensing fees.
This is incredible to me. Yeah, because his name is
(17:19):
right there, I know, and it's clearly like him there referencing.
There's no one else could be. It's not like all
that other Barnum and he's famous for that. Right. If
we step back a bit, to Barnum figured out how
to get his circus across the ocean in order to
do a tour of Europe. Manufacturers in England already making
(17:40):
those animals, those crackers slash cookies we're talking about earlier.
I saw a marketing opportunity and start to use circus
animal shapes based on the animals featured in Barnum's Circus.
They migrated back to the US these circus animal shaped cookies,
where Nibisco jumped on the train to cash in on
the popularity of the circus, until they were called Barnum's Animals.
(18:04):
Then the name changed to Barnum's Animal Crackers and just
f y I because I got really confused about this.
The Ringling Brothers acquired Barnum and Bailey Circus in nineteen
o six. Right, animal crackers were a pretty big part
of our pop culture. In nineteen thirty, the Marx Brothers
released a musical film called Animal Crackers, and then in
(18:25):
Curly Top with that Shirley Temples song Animal Crackers in
My Soup came out and although I have not listened
to what I've read, sars Um, it's it's a it's
a playful song. Explaining that you know, since she learned
the alphabet from alphabet soup, you know, she started adding
animal crackers to soup to learn her animals. Um. And
apparently Temple's parents got so many letters from parents of
(18:45):
fans around the country complaining that their kids kept trying
to put animal crackers in savory soups that her father,
George said, Shirley knows the crackers are too sweet for that.
She knows the combination would taste terrible. Surely saves the
animal crackers for after dinner. That might be apocryphal, but
I I like the idea of him like fed up
(19:08):
row with letters into the air and releasing this statement
public got a podium. She knows what she's doing. Look, look,
I don't need to hear any more of your complaints.
This wasn't serious. It was fiction. That's fair. You know,
I'd probably be annoyed too. Um. And this was the
(19:29):
circuses heyday, before the World Wars and tightened restrictions around
passports and the advent of new entertainment options like television.
The circus was really big. Oh yeah, absolutely much much later,
still talking about pop culture, animal crackers are a topic
of discussion in the episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
(19:50):
Oh yeah, well, because they're they're they're talking about animal crackers,
and I think I think Willow goes like, I don't know,
like Willis Andrew talking about it, and one of them
is like, is like why why the monkey the only
one that gets to wear pants? And the other one
is like, yeah, like, don't the other animals feel like
a little bit ripped off? Like you know, like like
like where's like doesn't the hippo ever go like, where's
(20:11):
my hippo dignity? Yeah, it's a paraphrase. It's pretty spot on. Though.
Impressed impressed with your Buffy knowledge every day. Oh gosh,
you too can have supreme Buffy knowledge if you just,
over the course of many years watch the series upwards
of five times. Okay, I'll get to work on get
on it right away. I like that's the type of
(20:34):
homework I like. Um. So, at first, these animal shapes
were a bit um. They required some imagination to figure
out what they were. The shapes got more distinct in
the nineteen fifties with the installation of rotary dies. Yeah,
these dies cannot only stamp out the shape of the animal,
but but detail onto the surface of the animal very fancy.
(21:00):
Over the years, Nibisco did a few collaborations that showcase
animals outside of the circus car, including one that raised
money for tiger conservation with fashion designer Lily Pulitzer An
They mix things up a bit from time to time,
like with their marine animals collection. In fact, over thirty
seven different animals have been in animal cracker form at
one time if we look at Barnum's specifically, but only
(21:22):
the bear, lion, elephant, antiger survived for most of the
product's lifetime. Um And Yes, despite being featured in the
Shirley Temple song, rabbits were never an animal cracker option.
I bet they got letters about that. I'm sure. I'm
sure the positive Barnum's Animal Crackers introduced a line of
endangered species animal crackers to support the World Wildlife Fund,
(21:47):
animals like Hawaiian monk seals and Komodo dragons. Nibisco's product
manager at the time told The New York Times, what
do people like about animal crackers, barting off the heads.
Our hope was that children will line them up, mashed
them up with the names on the box, learn about them,
and then decapitate them. I don't teach them to safe
(22:08):
endangered species. It'll teach them to love endangered species, and
especially their heads. They're tasty, very important, tasty heads one
of the most important parts. I would say critical. I
love that code. I think it's hilarious. It's beautiful. For
the one anniversary in two thousand two, Nabisco added a koala.
(22:32):
Based on consumer feedback, the koala beat out the cobra, penguin,
and walrus. Apparently the penguin was a close second. It
was heated. Um and Yeah. This was a part of
an integrated marketing campaign that employed like zero traditional advertising
but was apparently very successful. Um. They generated three d
and forty four million media impressions and increased consumer awareness
(22:55):
by during the campaign's first stage and during second which
I can cite to you because they won a Silver
Anvil Award for the campaign in two thousand three from
the Public Relations Society of America. Which is this whole thing.
The whole thing. Yeah, I am fascinated by stuff like
this because I remember when Eminem's did it. I think
(23:17):
I was in middle school. They've probably done another one
since then, but the one I remember, I was in
middle school, and it was like new color to the eminem's.
It was pink, heal and like a white purple. And
all of all my friends and myself we were all in.
We were voting every day. We were like, we just
gotta be to It's very to my existence. It's not
like I eight more eminem's after that, don't I don't
(23:40):
remember which one one see, I don't even remember which
one one, but like it just at the time, it's
very important, felt very serious. I don't know. They were
asking for your opinion and you were giving every day
every day. I'm like, it's still to you, it's still
you can vote once a day. Anyway, let's talk about
what we've kind of been alluding to this whole episode.
(24:02):
Some recent animal cracker news in Peta, People for the
Ethical Treatment of Animals contacted Nibisco's parent company, Montalais International
about changing the packaging from the circus cage the circus
box car cage. Right, yeah, because box car the animals
are in cages, yes, right. Peter was like no, no, no, yes.
(24:25):
They sent several design ideas of the animals in their
natural habitats, roaming free, and the company agreed to the redesign,
updating it to feature a lion, draft gorilla, and a
zebra in the savannah with trees and grass and background.
So they're kind of like in the wild. Yeah, they're
they're frolicking. Maybe you know, a little bit more abreast
than they normally would be, but sure. This was after
(24:49):
years of criticism and protests from groups like Peter and
As the Humane Society, as well as shifting views around
the ethics of using captive animals for our human entertain
Oh yeah lutely. This pushback resulted in barn Oman the
Ringling Brothers retiring their elephant acts, but due to slumping
ticket sales, the Ringling Brothers Circus closed in after one
(25:11):
and forty six years in operation. On top of that,
over eighty jurisdictions in thirty one states have cracked down
on the use of wild animals in entertainment, which is
a wonderful thing. I can't I can't argue with any
of that. No, UM still still sad about the clowns.
The trappiece um uh in Um and independently produced computer
(25:33):
generated animated film called Animal Crackers was set to premiere,
but a number of studio deals have fallen through and
although it's totally complete and has been for years now,
it still has not been released. Um. It's it's about
this box of magical animal crackers that that if you
eat one, it will change you into the animal in question, um,
(25:55):
which a family then uses to like revive a circus
um because it's not animal abuse if it's really people,
not animals that are performing. Yeah, this could be read
as a horror movie if I know when you come
back from yeah no, no, no, no, you eat that,
you eat you eat a person shaped cracker if you
(26:16):
want to come back. Yeah, Okay, that's a whole thing. Okay,
you're not stuck as like a gorilla. I mean it could.
You couldn't like it, say, I don't know. I'm just saying, yeah,
I'm not. I've only seen like a two minute trailer.
I'm not deeply aware of the specifics of the mechanics
of this. We've got to get to the bottom of it.
(26:37):
I saw that. I'm glad you said that because I
saw that come up. But I was like, was this
a movie or notice this like a parody? I couldn't
figure it out. It's both a movie and currently not
so Unfortunately it is a development. Hell it's okay, yeah,
I mean yeah, but it's still probably very upsetting for
the creators. But oh yeah, oh yeah, huh, well this
(27:03):
is all like recent animal cracker lots happening in this world.
You can still find a lot of opinions about the redesign.
You know, if you like animal crackers, that the taste
hasn't changed. It basically has not. No, yeah, very nostalgic taste, yes, apparently.
(27:25):
I did have an interesting conversation with actually one of
the female clowns, and she was just saying, now that
the difference in our generations of um, when older folks
see clowns and they're like, oh, clowns like a positive
zoo circus experience. But for people kind of our ages
like clowns, no, because we don't have our A lot
(27:48):
of us don't have the same circus positive experience. Yeah. Yeah,
I've there were clowns at the circus that I attended
as a child. But I have a lot more recent
experience with people in clowning who do like professional clowning shows,
um and and incorporate bits of this this historical stuff
(28:10):
into it, and and like I have been literally moved
to tears By like mime clown work, and it's it
can be really beautiful you guys. Um, I mean it's
also really funny to just get to say, like some
of my best friends are clowns, Like, don't discriminate against clowns. Yeah.
I like that, Um, but it's true. It's true they
(28:33):
can be they can be so delightful. And I don't know,
it's a whole huh. I go go listen to go
listen to the Spinty episode. Yeah, it's really togic. I
I felt like I learned a lot because I just
kind of hadn't had any experience with clowns. Yeah. I
like how this Animal Cracker episode is turning into pro clown.
We're pro clown here we are. This food podcast is
(28:59):
staunchly clown. Perhaps we should end it now have a
little bit more for you. We do, but first we've
got one more quick break for a word from our sponsor,
(29:21):
and we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you, And
we're back with wrong Lion. Scary. I can't. I just
need to work a lot on my impressions. Oh I saw,
I saw the lion. I just wanted to add a
little meal at the end. Oh thank you, Oh you're welcome.
(29:45):
I'll say, I'll take it. Confused us all excellent. Indeed,
that's the best of the best. Respot Caitlin wrote, I
recently listened to the Lavender episode, and when you all
start talking about the lavender festival, I was reminded of
a very funny memory. A few years ago. When I
lived in Omaha, Nebraska, I worked for and attended a
local young adult group called Great Adventure Ministries, around fifty
(30:07):
to sixty people. We were always on the lookout for
fun event ideas for the group, barn dances, ski trips,
orchard tours, etcetera. One day, one of our members heard
about a lavender farm that was about an hour away
in the Lowest Hills and decided we should do an
outing there, pack a big picnic lunch, and make a
day of it. She found a photo of lavender and
bloom online and posted the event on Facebook, leaving at
(30:29):
public so that people could invite friends. The next morning,
she checked the event and they were over four hundred
people marked as interested or coming, and she had several
messages from strangers in places like California and Michigan asking
her what the best hotels to stay in the area
would be understandably, she panicked. By that evening, I think
(30:49):
the count had gone up to almost nine hundred people interested,
some of which were from Great Britain. Over the next
few days, we edited the event and contacted all of
the people that to fly in and let them know
that it wasn't the type of event that they were
expecting and it probably wouldn't be worth it to fly
in for since it was just supposed to be a
small group outing, not a festival. We ended up changing
(31:12):
the event to be a fundraiser for a local anti
trafficking group and had about people attend. I think the
best part of the whole thing was that she had
planned the event too early in the year and the
lavender bushes weren't even in bloom. We also discovered at
the event that lavendar serup and iced Earl Gray tea
is delicious. I bet it is. It is people are
(31:35):
passionate about lavender. They are. That's good to know. If
I ever needed to draw crowd created Facebook event, Yes,
picture of lavender, that's it. Yeah, seems to be the
key ingredients, Kyrie wrote, and I hope that I'm saying
your name right. A while back, I started getting up
(31:55):
before the crack of dawn to run why. I still
don't know the answer to that, And I figured that
having a cup of coffee before I go would help
knock out those lingering thoughts asleep from my eyes. Now,
I buy cheap instant coffee because my brain and my
wallet aren't too concerned with coffee filters, grinders and all
the accoutremal that proper coffee needs. Now, even I, a
coffee greenhorn, will tell you that instant coffee is not
(32:16):
that great, even with the big, huge, mounded heaps of
brown sugar I put in. But I was content to
deal with, because you know, the goal was to wake up,
not to experience hot liquid nirvana. Until one day I
remembered an old angle storic commercial showing the different ways
bidders were used. A few dashes to help season meat,
a few sprinkles to ice cream, a splashed cocktails, and
(32:37):
a shake or two to hot coffee. I was intrigued,
and the very next morning I had enough brain power
to remember to include some in my cup, and y'all,
even through the alluring siren call of my warm bed,
I could taste the potential of what instant coffee wishes
it could be. There's no bitterness. The citrus notes from
the bidders blended so nicely with the smell of the coffee,
(32:58):
and I could taste car mole, imagine caramel and coffee.
Who knew, well, I certainly didn't, and I knew what
I had to do next, a deep dive into the
House of Angustora. Besides the museum, which only does tours
in groups, so bummer for an introvert, and the various RUMs,
there is a cookbook, like an actual cookbook, with food
(33:21):
recipes and not just cocktails. The recipes themselves lean more
to a Western Continental menu, with appetizers, soups and salads,
pasta and rice, meat and poultry, and desserts, and of
course suggested cocktails to go along with some recipes. There
are recipes like Angustora beef pies, orange rice puloff, chilled
cucumber soup, marinated chicken breasts, and classic chilled grandita. I
(33:45):
started doing this immediately because I also used in the morning.
Because Laura knows I've given up on our work coffee machine.
We're broken up forever. I never want to deal with
that thing again, um and working now okay, all right,
all right, No I'm not gonna you know, but you
(34:06):
have to. You have to live your own life. If
I see that screen, please wait dot dot dot one
more time. It's gonna be like office space up in
here anyway. So this is good for me, this email,
and it is nice. It does add like a little
like brightness and the smells good. Huh. I would recommend
(34:27):
trying it. Yeah, yeah, I'll, um, you know, look like
an even weirder human than I already looked. I'll bring
some in to use on the office coffee, and then
you should leave a note that said, don't judge. Listener
told us to do this because we are already seen
as a m Yeah, that's just that sounds just that,
(34:51):
just that noise pretty much sums it up around the office. Yeah, yeah,
I think so. Well. Thanks to both of them for
writing in. If you would like to write to us,
we would love to hear from you. Our email is
hello at savor pod dot com. You can also find
us on social media. We are on Facebook, Instagram, and
(35:12):
Twitter at savor pod. We do hope to hear from you.
Savor is a production of I Heart Radio. And stuff Media.
For more podcasts from My Heart Radio, you can visit
the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our super
producers Dylan Vagan and Andrew Howard with kind help today
from j J. Pauseway. Thanks to you for listening, and
we hope that lots more good things are coming your way.
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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