Peeps article in USA TODAY

http://www.usatoday.com/life/columnist/finalword/2008-03-18-final-word_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip
I love peeps. -Jodi

The Final Word: For Peep's sake, yellow chicks take a timeout
Craig Wilson, 3/18/2008

Years ago I wrote about Peeps. I wrote about how I loved them, how I wanted my Easter basket to be filled with nothing but, how they always needed to be yellow and in the shape of chicks.

God did not intend for there to be strawberry-cream Peeps. As I said at the time, that is unnatural.

The Peeps people paid me no mind, of course, and continued to churn out millions of their spun-sugar creations in a variety of shapes and colors.

My readers did pay attention, however. Over the years they have sent me hundreds of Peeps. Maybe thousands. Most of them yellow.

Every year I receive enough Peeps to populate a small city. Maybe even a large one. Every time I look, there seem to be more at my door.

Peeps are a bit like zucchini and wire hangers. Get two of them together in a dark place and you have dozens more before you know what happened.

But now I'd like to call a truce. I wave the white flag of surrender. I'm Peeped out.

Don't get me wrong. I still like Peeps. And unlike my friend Jayne, who likes hers stale and crunchy, I still like mine fresh. Soft. I remain the gourmand.

But it became a "too-much-of-a-good-thing" thing, so much so that I have declared my desk a Peep-free zone this year.

I confess I have even become a phantom Peep dropper. I carry them around the office, leaving a box here, a box there, a box in the men's room.

I look upon this as a public service. Sharing the wealth. And it works. When I go back, they're all gone. Flushed down the toilet, perhaps. I don't care.

Peep-B-Gone.

Easier said than done, of course. Peeps are a tenacious breed, no longer just an innocent Easter treat. They are a force to contend with.

There's a fan club. A website. There are recipes, including one that calls for Peeps as a pizza topping. There's a newsletter. And games.

Newspapers from Washington to Chicago to St. Paul even hold contests where readers make dioramas using nothing but Peeps.

Yes, Peep shows.

If I'm not mistaken, the diorama that won the Washington Post contest last year was a Peep dressed up as Marilyn Monroe, arms reaching skyward, descending a staircase lined with other Peeps dressed in tuxedos. Peeps Are a Girl's Best Friend was the theme.

Clever, but a reader with too much time on his hands.

I was sitting around with the neighbors the other night — obviously a slow night for us, too — talking about what we could come up with.

We already had missed the deadline for making a diorama, but our creative juices were flowing, as was the wine. There was no stopping us.

Neighbor Caroline liked "Peep-a-Boo." Molly thought "Peeps Who Need Peeps Are the Luckiest Peeps in the World" was quite clever.

But I still like my idea best. It's topical too, what with Pope Benedict XVI's trip planned for Washington, D.C., next month.

The Peepmobile.

I know. Inspired.