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"Cookies large and cookies small, Made by Scouts both short and tall. What's your order? Phone us quick, So that we may do the trick. Thirty cents is all we ask, and we find it is no task To deliver to your door, Dozens -- one, two, three or more!"

It had been five years since an enterprising and imaginative Girls Scout troop in Oklahoma had decided to bald a bunch of cookies and sell them at the local high school to raise money. Now it was 1922, and someone at American Girl magazine (official magazine of the Girl Scouts), had an idea…

So they whipped up an article suggesting that all troops try this idea out -- the Girl Scouts were apparently always in need of funds, and selling cookies seemed a novel and not half bad solution.

To make it easier, they concocted the above verse, and even provided a recipe.) Naturally, the girls would be baking the things themselves – this was 1922, after all.)

One would mix a cup of butter and a cup of sugar into a cream, then add two well beaten eggs, 2 tablespoons each of milk and baking powder, two cups of flour and a teaspoon of vanilla, along with any additional favoring one felt brave enough to add.

One would then separate the results into thin cooke shapes and sprinkle sugar on top, and then toss them in the oven to bake. Now, they don't seem to have provided much information as to how hot or how long to bake the cookies, but again it was 1922, and that sort of thing was probably common knowledge in those primitive times when we actually fended frequently for ourselves.

The article worked, and for the next fourteen or so years sales grew, until the Scouts finally decided to license some companies to manufacture the cookies for them. By the early 1950's they had improved upon the original sugar cookies-only menu, adding Shortbread cookies ("Trefoils"), Peanut Butter Sandwich cookies (Do-Si-Dos), and the cookie that would soon become the most popular of them all: the glorious Thin Mint.

Innovations continued, and over the years there have been over fifty flavors that were introduced only to be quickly retired faster than you can say "New Coke." Who can forget "Cartwheels" or "Oxfords" or my personal favorite, the chocolate coated caramel wafer "Kookaburras"?

Happily, the three introduced at the dawn of the 50's are with us still, along with "Savannah Smiles," "Samoas," and the new "Rah Rah Raisins" (oatmeal cookies).

And as you must know by now, Clara is indeed a Scout, and has been selling these things for a few years now. It's a good thing. The girls learn all the obvious life-lessons, the Girl Scouts rake in the dough, and, most importantly, your humble columnist has a more than ample supply of peanut butter cookies and thin mints…

Now, if you'll excuse me, I am suddenly and unaccountably hungry. And Thank You Berry Much…