A couple days ago, I went into work like any other day. It was a Tuesday - the day after Valentine's Day. Upon my arrival, I proceeded to carry out my normal morning routine: check my work email, see if my dad (boss) needs anything, and then go get water from the kitchen. And that is where my imagination got the better of my day.
Someone from our office had purchased nine or ten boxes of cookies. No, not Girl Scout Cookies. These were official Cougar Mountain Cookies.
Now as it turns out (and which I just found out today), Cougar Mountain Cookies are from Washington. Some guy started making cookies way back in 1988 and perfected his recipe and has been running this small operation for years. He named the company after a nearby BO-RING!!!!
I liked the story I came up with better...
About five years ago, three 49 year-old women were reunited through difficult circumstances. They had been friends since grade school, but had fallen out of touch until they met up quite coincidentally at a 'recent divorcee' support group. As it turns out, all three of them were going through divorces all at the same time and were looking to re-establish themselves and take the world by storm. You see, all three of them were still very attractive and they had come to see their divorces as a second chance at life. A liberation, if you will. And even better, all three of them came through the divorce financially secure.
Laura, Vicky, and Laura started spending much more time together: going out to bars, going out to fancy dinners, all the normal stuff you'd see on Desperate Housewives or Sex in the City. But the one thing they realized that they could do better than anyone else they knew was bake cookies. They could bake the FUCK out of cookies.
So they started going to farmer's markets to sell their homemade cookies and people definitely started to notice. One day at the markey, the head chef of a nearby prominent restaurant stopped by their booth. "I need to serve your cookies from my dessert menu," he told them because they were the most excellent cookies he had ever had. "What is your company called?" Laura, Vicky, and Laura looked at each other - they had never even considered that they would turn this hobby into a business, much less need a company name. Vicky, in a moment of inspiration, blurted out, "Cougar Mountain Cookies." [Quick side note, I considered going a VERY different direction with this.]
After the restauranteur left, both Laura's turned to Vicky. "Where'd you come up with that name?" Vicky reminded them that YEARS ago, they were girl scouts together and sold cookies way back in the day. She had been toying with the idea of starting a scout troop for single women. But instead of Woman Scouts or Girl Scouts 2, she had been considering Cougar Scouts. Instead of merit badges for sewing or baking, they would have to earn badges for seducing and sex: a recent college grad, a struggling artist, a celebrity. But it wouldn't just be about sex, there would be merit badges for helping a friend through a difficult time, yoga, philanthropy, and whatever else they wanted to inspire them to continue to grow.
Ever the enterprising woman, Vicky's plan involved an umbrella organization called Cougar Mountain that would manage and run all of the various Cougar entities. And thus Cougar Mountain Cookies was born.
Now tell me, which story do you prefer - the REAL version of Cougar Mountain Cookies or mine?
Saturday, February 19, 2011
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