Oreo for the road.

As you all know, I often have to take Nasbico to task for their weird and unusual ideas of what to do with their classic Oreo cookie, America's best-selling cookie. Really, many of these Oreo variations were so disappointing that they may have led to the return of Hydrox.

This summer, however, I thought Nabisco got it right with the limited edition Rocky Road Trip Oreo.

My wife disagreed, but let me tell you, I think this cookie's pretty good. Doesn't have much to do with Rocky Road ice cream, except for the marshmallow, but who cares? It's an Oreo cookie with chocolate filling that has crunchy marshmallow bits in the filling -- and in the cookie itself. I know, right? The marshmallows are of course not of the Campfire or Jet-Puffed variety, but rather more like the marshmallows from Lucky Charms. And we're always after those Lucky Charms.

It got me thinking about Rocky Road, meaning the ice cream. I've never been a big fan; I like flavors of ice cream more than ice cream with lots of chunky stuff in it. Rocky Road has chocolate and marshmallow and nuts, usually almonds (unlike the Oreo version, which has no nuts). The history of Rocky Road is itself interesting, and as usual our friends at Mental Floss are on it. Apparently still-extant two ice cream manufacturers, Edy's/Dreyer's and Fentons Creamery, claim credit for inventing the popular variety. Or maybe it was some guys in Kansas. It's a mystery. Good thing that all of Ben & Jerry's stupid flavors are documented.

As are Oreos. Rocky Road Trip is obviously a vacation-season variety, and I gather it will gone soon. Summer's semi-officially on the wane; although we have almost another month to go, kids in New York know they're finished. They'll be waiting for the school bus next week. I know other kids in other parts of the country have already started classes, but in New York, or at least the southern part of the state, we stick to the no-school-in-August (except for dumdums and college students) rule that was in place when I was a child. No kid today knows why Jerry Lewis = Doomsday, but if you're in my age group you do. Labor Day weekend was the last gasp of summer, and even if summer sucked, even if you wanted to see your school friends again and break out all your new school supplies, even if you were bored stupid, summer was still better than school.

If you fall into the no-school-yet category, get a pack of Rocky Road Trip Oreos and cram a few in your mouth. It's a vacation cookie. It'll make you feel like you're in the back of a Winnebago, cruising along without a care in the world.

Or maybe not. But it's a nice thought, isn't it?