Why Couldn't These Advertisers Have Made Up Their Minds????????????????

                                     Every time I see a Stella D'Oro shelf in a super market, other childhood associations flash through my mind.  To think, this was probably my earliest introduction to what I thought of as sophistication!  Now, the very idea makes me laugh!

                                     The Stella D'Oro ads on TV of the time had this voice over actor, with a faux French accent sing, "So addddddd.....ze Continennntal touch to ze taaaaable!  Weeth...," and then a woman, in a tone of contented murmuring, as though having just awakened from a colonscopy or having had a successful bowel movement, would trill...."Stella D'Orrrrrrrrrrooooo!!!!!!!!!!!"

                                      Darlings, I was off and running!  Paris, the Eiffel Tower, I wanted it all, from  that point!

                                     But here's the thing--when I got older, looking at the package, thinking of the ad, I had to wonder--Was Stella D'Oro French, or Italian??????????  Because the accent of the actor's voice was distinctly French, but look at the packaging; it resembles the Italian flag!!!!!!!!!!

                                      So, I don't know what to believe, darlings!!!!!!!!!!  Maybe before the words "Asian fusion" popped into our jargon, this was East European fusion!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                       Abbondanza, darlings!!!!!!!!!!  Allons-ons, mes petits enfants!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!