Saturday, October 14, 2006

Puss-y Dispute

My mother and I are engaged in a healthy debate about Carvel. She insists that years ago, there was a Carvel on the corner of Crawford and Dempster in Skokie. I am certain that Carvel was a NYC tri-state area franchise (or I should say quad-state because I think it was only in NY, CT, NJ, and PA). According to The Encyclopedia of Bad Taste by Jane and Michael Stern, a book given to my by a friend which I treasure, there were 25 Carvel ice cream shops on the East Coast by the early 1950s. Great, but what about after that? The article only goes on to describe his horrible radio ads.

Because I really like being right, I went to the Carvel website to try and learn more about the history of Carvel. Thus I was confronted by an image of my nemesis Cookie Puss:



Damn, I don’t see how people do not find this thing scary as hell. Forget the vacant stare. He is just a giant face, and his arms are on the side of his face! I know he is from space and all, but that is some freaky shit!

Getting over my fear of Cookie Puss, I also learned that Carvel set the Guiness World Record™ for Largest Ice Cream Scoop Pyramid in 2002 and in honor of the company’s 70th birthday, set the Celebrates Guinness World Record for the Largest Ice Cream Cake in 2004. I did not find out when they expanded west, but it seems like it was not until the 1990s when they began selling ice cream cakes (not scary ones like Cookie Puss, but innocuous ones like Fudgie the Whale) in grocery stores.

I really believe that the Chicago area was safe from Cookie Puss until the past few years or so. If anyone knows otherwise, please let me know. I plan to call corporate HQ on Monday and find out for sure. Seriously, Fudgie the Whale is now my Moby Dick and I am Ahab out to prove my point.
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10 comments:

  1. AnonymousOctober 14, 2006 at 5:36 PM

    I have no conclusive proof, but I think you're right-I grew up in NJ and I always had the impression that Carvel was a hometown thing.

    But I do remember the horrible radio ads from when I was growing up-the Carvel dude sounded like Phil Rizzuto, if I remember correctly.

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  2. Major BedheadOctober 14, 2006 at 6:53 PM

    I don't know about Chicago, but we had a Carvel in the next town over from us and I grew up in Massachusetts. Cookie Puss didn't bother me that much, but I thought that Tom (?) Carvel was scary beyond reason.

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  3. super desOctober 15, 2006 at 8:47 AM

    This is all I could find (but I didn't really look): wikipedia

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  4. super desOctober 15, 2006 at 5:53 PM

    I will say this: I do kind of want to eat that. I think I would get some sort of perverse satisfaction from cutting it into pieces and devouring that which is Cookie Puss.

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  5. Brother-in-LawOctober 15, 2006 at 8:56 PM

    Those aren't arms on the side of his face, they are kick-ass muttonchops.

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  6. Alex ElliotOctober 16, 2006 at 5:51 PM

    I still got freaked out looking at Cookie Puss on your post.

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  7. momOctober 16, 2006 at 7:09 PM

    Aha! I e-mailed Carvel customer service and told them I was having a friendly argument with my daughter about the DEFINITE existence of Carvel in beautiful Skokie, Illinois. Carvel responded that it is quite possible that there was such a place in Skokie many years ago because at one time, there were 800+ stores nation-wide. In addition, I have some local corroboration as well. My longtime girlfriend agrees that Skokie did, indeed, have a Carvel shop. To be fair, she does admit that she can't remember exactly where on Dempster Street. I do know for a fact that it was at Dempster and Crawford. I was willing to celebrate my complete triumph in a humble manner, but since you splashed our familial dispute across your nationally recognized blog, I declare war!

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  8. SuzanneOctober 16, 2006 at 8:42 PM

    See, Fudgie the Whale really is my Moby Dick, as it has brought me down. You beat me out with your call to Carvel.

    Mercy!

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  9. EVOctober 19, 2006 at 2:10 PM

    I was directed to your site by red stapler, after I posted on Tuesday that I couldn't wait for my 30th birthday Cookie Puss. You'll be happy to know that I didn't get it because the ass hat at Carvel decided to close early.

    But seriously, what else would you expect their official Spokescake to look like?

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  10. DavidDecember 28, 2009 at 6:29 PM

    I know for a fact Carvel was there since it was my favorite place for ice cream.

    ReplyDelete

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