twinkies and the holy grail

I’ve always had an attachment to Hostess Twinkies. Inadvertently, I even purchased a two-pack one week prior to the earth-shattering announcement of the Hostess dissolution. Too late I wandered into the local supermarket to stock up after that proclamation only to find the bare metal of emptied shelves where the Hostess junk food once sat. “Oh, Hostess! We hardly knew ye!” How could I have taken them for granted for so many years? Why, why did I not pick up on the prescience of the movie Zombieland, in which a Twinkie-obsessed Woody Harrelson scoured every store he came upon in the post-apocolyptic world to search for his beloved snack (often risking his life in the process)?

Last Sunday I became aware of a possible replacement in the form of a coupon in the newspaper for $ .75 off the purchase of a box of Little Debbie Cloud Cakes. I recognize many of you involuntarily wince at the mere mention of Little Debbie, as do I, but hey, if there is an alternative (at least until the powers that be settle on the rights to Twinkie and who will ultimately purchase them), I’m willing to overlook past prejudices. I’ve never seen a Little Debbie Cloud Cake before. Perhaps the world supremacy of Twinkies shamed them away from the supermarket shelves for all of these years. Coupon in hand, I began my search two days ago. Both supermarkets nearby (a Dan’s and a Fresh Market) contained no such treats. A search on the Little Debbie website lists stores nearby that supposedly stock these babies, but then, they listed one of the two stores that I previously scoured to no avail. Today, I will widen my search perimeter to include supermarkets in the vicinity of my workplace. I fear Little Debbie Cloud Cakes are like the mythical Unicorn, somebody’s imagined creature, beautiful yet non-existent. (Side note: North Korea news sources recently announced the discovery of a past Korean King’s unicorn stable, so perhaps there is hope . . .
Another side note: how pathetic and desperate is that to hope for the credibility of news from North Korea?)
In any event, I’ll keep you posted on my quest for the alternate Twinkie Holy Grail, Cloud Cakes.