Tip Two Cows and Call Me in the Morning

A Gallup survey has found a lot of Americans saying they find planning and cooking for a dinner party to be stressful. Twenty percent compared the stress to having a mother-in-law over for the weekend; 31%, to a visit to the dentist; and 34%, to doing their taxes.

The poll was conducted on behalf of Decipher Inc., the maker of a dinner party game named Stir Crazy. Decipher is best known for a board game based on the college prank of tipping cows over.

Tender Pie, Part Two

Last year, this column mentioned “The Secret to Tender Pie,” a recipe collection envisioned by compiler Mindy Marin as “a Valentine to the grandmothers of the world.” She’s heard from a lot of grandmothers, and the book will be published by Ballantine/Random House on Mother’s Day next year.

She’s still looking for a few more grandmothers’ recipes, though. (In fact, she’s already thinking about a possible Volume II.) Accompany them with a current photo, your date and place of birth, how many children and grandchildren you have, how you got the recipe and what makes it special. If she uses your recipe, you’ll get a copy of the book. Send to Bluewater Ranch Entertainment, 609 Broadway, Santa Monica, CA 90401.

It’s the Economics, Stupid

‘Tis the season for advertisers to piggyback on the elections. Heublein, one of the sponsors of that first presidential debate in its headquarters home of Hartford, Conn., has been promoting political cocktails such as the Stoli Doley (Stolichnaya and pineapple juice with a splash of grenadine), the Bubbarita (Cuervo 1800, Cointreau, sweet and sour mix, orange juice) and the Whitewater (equal parts Bailey’s Irish Cream and Smirnoff).

Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream allows you to “vote”--one quart, one vote--by buying one of three election season flavors: Clinton ‘n’ Cream (Cookies ‘n’ Cream), Cookie Dole (Cookie Dough) or Nutty for Neither (appropriately, this is actually Rocky Road). In a TV ad for Carvel, an East Coast ice cream shop chain, Rich Little impersonates Ross Perot doing a pie chart lecture.

Jack in the Box, the hamburger chain, claims the votes are already in and its boy has won. On the Internet’s Virtual Vote site, Bob Dole and President Clinton are in a dead heat at 22% of the vote to 21%, with much of the rest of the online balloting tied up in another dead heat between First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and Dilbert cartoon strip character Dogbert, 14% to 15%. However, the vote leader is said to be Jack, the spherical-headed hamburger clown, at 28%. Jack, who drives a ’68 GTO and lists in-line skating as his favorite sport, has accepted the nomination of a mysterious Burger Users Rally for Greater Eating Reform party. That’s, uh, B.U.R.G.E.R. for short.