Tidbits: Make it stop!

Make it stop! Mr. Tidbit has proclaimed many times, over the years, that he has decided to stop mentioning new products that differ from existing products only in having a new flavor. He has also frequently promised to stop mentioning new kinds of Oreo cookies. And then Nabisco introduces an even sillier new flavor of Oreo cookie, and Mr. Tidbit just can't help himself.

This time it's DQ Blizzard Creme Oreos. That's right, it's an Oreo cookie, with filling that is supposed to taste (and look) like a DQ Oreo Blizzard. That's one of the Dairy Queen frozen treats consisting of soft-serve ice cream and bits of -- Oreo cookies. Mr. Tidbit feels as if he has stepped into one of those pairs of fun-house mirrors that seem to repeat themselves off into infinity: Will DQ offer a DQ Oreo Blizzard Creme Blizzard in which the Oreo cookie bits are bits of DQ Blizzard Creme Oreos? Will Nabisco offer a DQ Oreo Blizzard Creme Blizzard Creme Oreo cookie in which the filling is supposed to resemble a Dairy Queen frozen treat consisting of soft-serve ice cream and bits of DQ Blizzard Creme Oreo cookies? Will DQ offer. ...

(Slap!)

Thank you. Mr. Tidbit needed that. Would it surprise you to learn that -- at the prices at one discount supermarket ($2.98 for the 18-ounce bag containing 45 regular Oreos, and $2.69 for the 10.5-ounce bag containing 20 DQ Blizzard Creme Oreos) -- the fancy Oreos cost 54 percent more per ounce or 103 percent more per cookie? It shouldn't.

Naturally New in the refrigerated juice section from Dole, two flavors of Sensation Natural: watermelon and lemon-lime. Unlike the other Dole chilled-juice products, which are 100 percent juice, these are 10 percent juice. And even that 10 percent isn't the named juice. Watermelon, for example, is water, sugar, and the concentrated juices of watermelon, apples and grapes.

AL SICHERMAN