Cranial Gunk

“Ice Cream” reminds me of Eddie Murphy’s little dance from Delirious. I don’t normally do this, but the concept is too good to pass up – “Designer Ice Cream.”

This is the press release I received from Cowabunga Ice Cream:

FORKED RIVER, NJ, March 1, 2011 – Foodies and fine-living connoisseurs rejoice! Cowabunga Ice Cream company today announced that, with the re-launch of its new Web site at www.CowabungaIceCream.com, it’s super premium “designer ice cream” brand has gone national, with its inimitable ice cream and probiotic frozen yogurt offerings now available for online purchase – minimum product order $50.00 – to ship to consumers throughout the continental U.S.

“Cowabunga Ice Cream elevates the ice cream experience from ordinary to extraordinary by combining divine premium ingredients with distinctive flavors that leave our customers longing for more,” notes Ellen Schack, founder of Cowabunga Ice Cream. “While our inspired ice cream blends are ultra rich and luxurious on the palate, our brand uniquely blends this exquisite epicure experience with the fun and relaxed sensibility of surfing and beach culture. This I call the ‘Cowabunga lifestyle,’ which translates to living life to the fullest and in abundance until it overflows. We’re anxious to share our ice cream, and the culture it represents, with food-and-fun-loving consumers and event planners across the nation.”

Cowabunga was recently featured at a Philadelphia Sak’s Fifth Avenue “Girl’s Night In” event at the store, where attendees delighted in the company’s sumptuous frozen confections as they shopped and socialized. Cowabunga offers such on-site tastings and full-scale ice cream catering for special events nationwide.

Whether for personal enjoyment, as a decadent gift for others, or in bulk to elevate corporate, social and other special events, Cowabunga Ice Cream offers a wide variety of perennial and seasonal flavors, with many that are exclusive to the brand. Offerings in its current designer ice cream line include:

Rodeo Drive Designer Flavors:

• Cookie Dough – Cookie dough flavored ice cream with chocolate chip cookie dough chunks and dark chocolate chips mixed in
• Mint Chocolate Chip – Cool mint flavored ice cream with dark chocolate chunks
• Cake Batter – Cake batter flavored ice cream that takes like it just like out of the mixing bowl
• Almond Joy – Coconut flavored ice cream with almonds and dark chocolate chips mixed throughout
• Coffee Espresso – Rich coffee flavored ice cream with chocolate covered espresso beans scattered throughout
• New York Cheesecake – Luxurious creamy cheesecake flavored ice cream including real cheesecake chunks and graham cracker swirled through

Off 5^th Avenue Chocolate Flavors:

• Classic Chocolate – A rich and decadent chocolate ice cream
• Death by Chocolate – Chocolate ice cream with chocolate chunks, chocolate cake “crunchies” and fudge swirled throughout
• Chocolate Peanut Butter – Chocolate ice cream swirled with creamy peanut butter

Lux Vanilla Flavors:

• Very Vanilla – A smooth and velvety vanilla ice cream unlike any other
• Take 5 – Vanilla ice cream with peanuts, caramel, chocolate covered pretzels mixed in
• Rice Krispy® Treat – Vanilla ice cream with marshmallow swirled throughout and with Rice Krispies® mixed in

Beverly Hills R.E.A.L. Yogurt – all flavors are low fat and contain probiotics to naturally promote healthy digestion:

• Red Velvet Cake
• Peanut Butter
• Chocolate Cable Car
• Strawberry

Those who’ve experienced Cowabunga Ice Cream rave not only about its bold, creative flavors, but also the fresh and creamy taste said to make other “premium” ice creams taste “day old.” New York Times best selling author Omar Tyree has proclaimed Cowabunga as “the Louis Vutton of ice cream,” while ActionCOACH business consultant Steve Vorrius declared, “Once you taste this ice cream you will never look at ice cream the same again.”

Those wishing to order Cowabunga Ice Cream may do so online at www.CowabungaIceCream.com.

About Cowabunga Ice Cream

Cowabunga Ice Cream was originally founded to give the Jersey Shore community a friendly place to gather and enjoy high-caliber classic and healthy frozen desserts. As word spread about the taste and quality of Cowabunga ice cream, the company inspired to offer its unique approach to ice cream on a national level. Today, Cowabunga Ice Cream is known as the world’s first designer ice cream offering a luxe epicure experience that leaves consumers longing for more. In addition to its bevy of beloved ice cream flavors, Cowabunga also offers healthy frozen yogurts containing probiotics – the natural way to promote healthy digestion. The company’s ice cream and ice cream cakes are also available in bulk orders for special events. Learn more online at www.CowabungaIceCream.com.

Andy Warhol from The Philosophy of Andy Warhol:

The most beautiful thing in Tokyo is McDonald’s

The most beautiful thing in Stockholm is McDonald’s

The most beautiful thing is Florence is McDonald’s

Peking and Moscow don’t have anything beautiful yet.

In 1990, Moscow became beautiful.

Beijing (formerly Peking) didn’t become beautiful until 2007.

America is “The Beautiful.”

When I was young, I knew I had done well when my parents would tell me we were going to McDonald’s. Together we would drive deeper into Queens for Big Macs, cheese burgers, vanilla shakes, and a mountain of crispy French Fries.

Coca Cola, McDonald’s, Chevrolet – it was all a part of becoming more American. And while I desperately wanted to assimilate more in my youth, I understood even then that a visit to the Golden Arches was not a visit made without thought or purpose. It was not something we did everyday.

This doesn’t mean I didn’t scream and cry for McDonald’s whenever the opportunity presented itself. However, my parents were firm. They said, No!

What disturbs me most about the outcry to retire Ronald McDonald and to remove the toys from the McDonald’s Happy Meals is that the arguments to do so seem less about healthy eating and more about parents not wanting to say, “No” to their children. From what I read, the proponents of the forced retirement and ban justify their stance by clinging to the belief that it is too tough to get their children to “eat healthy.”

Damien Hoffman at the Wall Street Cheat Sheet writes:

As the father of a 9 1/2-month-old, I prefer to have a level playing field when taking the time to teach my children how to eat healthy. If Ronald is giving toys with his meals, I have to work that much harder to get my children to eat what is best for their self-interest (which is also best for our economy and society). Personally, I am sick of having to compete with the lowest common denominator when it comes to creating a healthy environment for my family.

I agree. It is tough to get children to eat healthy. As our careers seep more and more into our personal lives and through cell phone and net book our offices become viral, the time traditionally reserved for healthy meals is diminished. Greater effort and planning needs to be done to insure a healthy diet for us as well as our children.

However, just because it is tough doesn’t mean we don’t attempt it. The problem is not Ronald and his Happy Meal toys but busy parents not wanting to spend the time to cope with the consequences of saying: No!

I am my children’s parent, not their friend. Damien is right in asserting: “Children don’t have a mature sense of social reality.” I would add that a lot of adults don’t either (and I don’t mean that in a passive aggressive pot shot way). Reality is a social construct. Individuals who have not had the benefit of developing in a diverse community logically lack the array of tools with which to construct their social reality. This is where we as a society work together to inform and guide.

Parenting is very inconvenient. Parenting is very tough. These are social realities. Expecting a “healthy” fast food meal is not socially realistic. Fast food is about convenience. It is filler until something substantial can be had.

The Happy Meal toy is a symbol of American innovation. The Happy Meal was created as a way to promote McDonald’s as a family restaurant specifically servicing small children -

The very first Happy Meal in 1979 in Kansas City was the Circus Wagon Happy Meal and McDonaldland Fun-To-Go in St. Louis. It cost one dollar and contained either a McDoodler stencil, a puzzle book, a McWrist wallet, an ID bracelet or McDonaldland character erasers. The Circus Wagon Happy Meal consisted of a hamburger or cheeseburger, twelve-ounce soft drink, a small order of french fries, and a “McDonaldland Cookie Sampler”, a small portion of cookies.

The Happy Meal is that little slice of Americana my parents risked their livelihoods on. They traded their familiar worlds for one they had only seen in the movies. They worked hard for their baseball and apple pie. However, this doesn’t mean we had either everyday. They knew a healthy diet could contain some pie but was not entirely pie. A healthy diet is balanced. And when I screamed for pie, they knew enough to say: No! (and mean it)