This Cookie Won't Crumble

You didn't have to be a kid to enjoy Tuesday's party in Market Square for the 100th birthday of America's favorite cookie — the Oreo. But when the party started in the Square, this birthday bash brought out the kid in everyone. With multi-colored streamers, a dancing flash mob and plenty of free Oreos and milk for everyone, lunchtime in the Square was never sweeter.

The birthday buzz actually started humming on Monday evening, when a giant blue-and-white birthday present mysteriously appeared in the Square. By the time the Square filled with the curious and hungry during Tuesday's lunchtime, the surprise was out of the box as Mr. Oreo himself appeared for the festivities.

As one of the few cities around the world (one of only six American cities) selected by Nabisco, the Oreo's creator, to participate in this delicious centennial celebration, Pittsburgh showed that it could party with its global counterparts. Fueled by a midday sugar rush, partygoers boggied down with the flash mobbers who were decked out with "flaming" headpieces to resemble candles on a birthday cake.

In case you don't know your Oreo history, the first one popped out of Nabisco's ovens on March 6, 1912, in Manhattan and ended up being sold across the river in Hoboken, New Jersey. Since then, snackers around the world have bought more than 500 billion Oreos, with 95 million flying off store shelved every day. Now if you stacked all those Oreos on top of each other they would reach to cookie heaven and back — at least a couple times.

Now we don't know how you do it, but our preferred method of enjoying an Oreo is to remove one of those chocolate cake layers and oh so slowly lick away the filling. And, yes, you must wash it all down with a tall glass of white milk cold enough to almost make your teeth hurt. Even better when the milk comes from local award-winning, family-owned Turner Dairy Farms, as yesterday's milk was.  Turns out, there's no wrong way to enjoy an Oreo, as we found out from our fellow cookie fans in the Square. And though it's sold in more than 100 countries in the world to the tune of nearly $1.5. billion, the Oreo will always have a special place in the heart of Pittsburghers no matter how old they — or Oreos — might be.