Like Gael over at Pop Culture Junk Mail, I didn't even realize that Hostess got rid of the magician guy who was on the front of their pies since the early 70s. I don't usually buy snack pies anymore, though I do love them (both Hostess and Drake's).

I know that products and companies and logos have to change over the years, but I always feel a little sad when a classic character or design is changed. Really, did the change improve sales? You would think that keeping a classic character would endear a company to loyal customers even more.

Now if someone could answer this question. What exactly was the magician? Was he human? The body shape suggests a banana, or some sort of legless apple slice. Or maybe the Penguin from Batman.

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I devoured these as a kid*. They were one of the regular junk food items my sister and I would buy at the store down the street to eat while watching The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family on Friday nights. I saw them at the store the other day and decided to pick up a box.

Hey, today is National Pie Day!

The American Pie Council calls pie "the ultimate comfort food," and I bet a lot of people would agree with that. So what should you do to celebrate National Pie Day? Well, the first thing you should do, of course, is eat pie. And then maybe you can enter the 2007 APC Crisco National Pie Championships. Or maybe you could perform random acts of pieness, by sharing a pie that you bake. And there are many other ways to mark the day, including pie sales, contests, teaching, and singing pie songs.

Pie songs?

The pie above is Chocolate Death Pie, and the recipe is here.