This Floating Life

People are leaving a lot of sweets out on the common table.

This morning, it was yellow cookies and whoopie pies.

The first time I saw a whoopie, I didn't know what it was. I was in a minimart / service station in western PA. A small turdlike thing was wrapped in saran wrap lying next to the cash register.

"What's that?" I asked the attendant, pointing.

"That's a whoopie dog," he said.

I had never heard of it. "What's that?"

"It's like a whoopie pie."

"What's a whoopie pie?"

He paused. "Why . . . it's just a whoopie pie."

For that reason, I now think of whoopie pies as an a priori food.