Way back in the 1990s in the early days of my career, I appeared in commercials.

Lots of commercials, from aspirin to deodorant to telephone pricing plans.

But one food item stood apart from the other

products. One world famous mainly chocolate cookie that bases its

branding on how you can twist and separate the cookie wafers from their inner white filling.

You know the one I'm talking about, Oreos.

You might even have a vague memory of me sitting at a table demonstrating this age-old practice for a two-year-old

toddler named Gary.

Gary, it's time I taught you something every man should know how to eat an Oreo cookie.

Twist it off.

Oh, you did it.

Just give it a lick.

It was an unusual experience shooting this shot, I remember.

It involved lab-coated food technicians

heating individual cookies to an optimal temperature for effective camera

friendly licks. Gary and I were portraying the essential human bond between father and son, but that was, of course, secondary to the more important human connection to cookies.

Now, you just learned to tie your shoelaces and you'll be all set.

Crossing time and generations, one need only know how to twist the wafer off to get to the really good stuff in the middle.

There's a metaphor there.

Connection to food is human history of the highest order

and the lowest.

Either way, it's universal.

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