new semester, and first day writing sample

most ice cream fans will tell you that any ice cream flavor is a flavor worth eating. from the understated fun of chocolate chip, to the chaos of flavor that characterizes ben and jerry's line, to the exotic persian frankincense - any ice cream has its merits.

or so we tell ourselves. but while it may be so that all ice cream is beautiful in the eyes of its maker, there can be only one best ice cream, only one candidate which comes out ahead in the ice cream presidential election.

some may try to tell you that vanilla is the best. it's simple. but let's be honest - vanilla is the john kerry of ice cream. there's nothing wrong with it, but you don't get excited about it. when vanilla ice cream gives a speech, it's not memorable. this is no bill clinton flavor we're talking about. (clinton, by the way, is obviously a dark chocolate rocky road.) vanilla's okay, sure. but are we really looking for okay? is adequate enough in a contest of this magnitude?

i didn't think so.

consider what butter pecan brings to the table. it's a southern favorite, which makes it both staunchly American and just a little bit exotic. it isn't overflowing with add-ins and flavor combinations, creating the sort of chaos and confusion characterized by B&J's everything but the, or mitt romney's tax plans. no, butter pecan relies on its own natural gifts - the richness of the cream, butter, and brown sugar; the dark  toastiness of the pecans; the marriage of just-sweet-enough and almost-savory. if butter pecan ice cream wore clothes, it would dress like michelle obama. 

butter pecan: rich, smooth, elegant. the obvious choice.