Formal Protest

The Girl Scouts have failed me.

First, some background. I grew up in "land-without-any-girlscouts." Seriously. I didn't know a single one growing up. I was not bombarded by eager tween girls in brown and green uniforms every time I went to the store. No one showed up at my door with an order form sometime in February/March.

And yet, somehow, we always ended up with Thin Mints, Samoas and Do-si-dos. To this day, I'm not sure how.

Anyway, as an adult, February and March have always brought a box or two of contraband Girl Scout Cookies, which take up residence in the freezer and last until summer (Weird, I realize. Otherwise the Thin Mints disappear at an alarming rate). It has always meant one box of Thin Mints and one box of Lemon Coolers.

Until 2007. I went to place my order with this year's random Girl Scout only to be told, "Sorry. They don't make Lemon Coolers any more!" WHAT?! Sure enough, the official "cookie" site no longer lists Lemon Coolers as an option.

Then, I found this on the Cookie FAQ site:

Licensed bakers can offer up to eight varieties of Girl
Scout Cookies; only three types are mandatory: Thin Mints, Peanut Butter
Sandwich/Do-si-dos™ and Shortbread/Trefoils. The national Girl Scout
organization reviews and approves all varieties proposed by the bakers. Any of
the five optional cookies can be changed every year. Each bakery names its own
cookies, so Girl Scout Cookies that are quite similar may have different names.
Suggestions for new cookies are welcome, but the national Girl Scout
organization can make no promise to use them.

So the Lemon Coolers were an "optional" cookie, and obviously were booted out by some cookie more fashionable at the moment. That means my beloved Thin Mints (the only chocolate cookie I actually really like) are safe, but almost anything else could go on the chopping block from year to year.

I'm lodging a formal protest. I didn't buy any cookies this year. Instead, I'm eating someone else's Thin Mints (with her permission). I don't have enough will power to give them up completely, just enough to not buy them directly, but don't tell anyone.