One by one, the giants fall. The inventor of the Quarter Pounder died earlier this year, his contribution to American cuisine surpassed only by the effect he had on language: for many years anything that weighed close to a pound was described as a POUNDER. It never spread beyond that; no ever described a cup of yogurt as a THREE OUNCER, for example.
Now the inventor of Spaghetti-Os has left us. He was also responsible for Campbell's Chunky Soup, another great innovation that seems so obvious, so simple in retrospect. Soup is not enough; it needs chunks. No one ever seemed to wonder: chunks of what? No mother ever put the bowl down and said "now eat your chunks." But we lapped it up nonetheless. Soup's all the better for being chunkier, I guess.
Spaghetti-Os were another thing, and my view may be colored by my early attempts to feed them to my child, just to provide variety from Mac & Cheese. She was excited to try them, thanks to the colorful graphics and "Fun Shapes" promised on the label. Her expression after one spoonful said she will never eat Spaghetti-Os for the rest of her life. Not if I pureed them and made them into a poultice to be absorbed through the skin. If you don't eat them as a kid, you'll never eat them. The sauce - well, it's just wrong. The Os are mushy; the meatballs seemed to be made of some strange combination of beef bouillon-soaked cardboard and Elmer's Glue. But they were loved by millions, I presume.
As was the ad campaign: Uh Oh, Spaghetti-Os.
In retrospect, it seems like they were honestly trying to warn you.
