Let them eat cake...and other stuff

By Darren Brown, News9.com INsite team

Fair food.  Arts Festival food.  Chocolate Festival food.  Food from every festival held in Oklahoma.  And it all ends up here in our newsroom.  I'm talking indian tacos, onion burgers, kolaches, you name it.  Every event has its own special fare, and what better  way to drum up interest than to present it on television?  Problem is, all that breaded, deep-fried, butter-soaked, calorie-laden stuff finds its way to our newsroom.  Now I'm not really complaining--some of that stuff is awesome!  But temptation is a powerful thing. 

 Many times I have come to work in the morning and thought "Cheeseburgers for breakfast--cool."  That's just not right.  What a terrible thing to do to my innards.  However, our morning show folks, having been up for 5-6 hours, are all over it.  BBQ at 6 am is very normal for them.  

We have a rather long newsroom which we refer to as "the bus."  Almost every day I can count on 1 or 2 e-mails informing me as to what dish is up for grabs at the front of "the bus."  And I really do mean UP FOR GRABS.  Respectable, upstanding journalists can become like rabid hyenas when there's free food involved.  Sometimes, e-mail just isn't fast enough.  (As I'm writing this, I'm watching Kelly Ogle peruse the buffet.)  Like I said, very often people just yell across the newsroom.  "FAJITAS AT THE FRONT OF THE BUS," seems to work just fine.  No one seems to mind the distraction.

But the best treats, in my opinion, are the homemade ones.  We're lucky enough to have newsroom staffers that can bake their buns off.  Cakes, cookies, and don't even get me started on the cupcakes.  The holidays are a feast--believe me.  It's like a friendly competition with us non-baking folks on the winning side. 

But back to the festival fare.  Good stuff.  I surely hope they keep bringing it in.  Because hey, someone has to taste the stuff and let you, our viewing public know if it's worth your while.  It's a service that we're proud to provide.  So the next time you go to the fried onion-arts-watermelon-bluegrass-dog show, rest assured that the funnel cake you're about to dig into has been stamped GOOD STUFF  by us, your friendly NEWS9/News9.com crew.