Cookie Power: A Fig Grows In Newton

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By Newsweek Editors

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It was invented the same year as the zipper--and it has endured equally well. Sixty-five million pounds of Fig Newtons are consumed annually, and next month the blue-chip cookie will celebrate its 100th birthday in its namesake town. "You don't hear of Fig New Yorks or Fig Springfields," brags Theodore Mann, mayor of Newton, Mass. Actually, Fig Newtons got their start in Cambridge, produced by a new machine that could/ extrude one substance (fig jam) inside another (pastry dough). But when the Kennedy Biscuit Works began producing the goodies in 1891, they were named for the nearby town--and Newton entered cookie immortality.

Newton will rally round the fig on May 7 with a grand barbecue and a special appearance by pop singer Juice Newton. (Wayne Newton and Olivia Newton-John were too busy--and too expensive.) Big Fig, a cousin of the California Raisins, will dance and sing: "Ooey gooey, rich and chewy inside; tender flaky, golden cakey outside." Student artists will display such modified masterpieces as a version of van Gogh's "Starry Night" with a Fig Newtonstudded heaven.

Nabisco Brands, which manufactures the cookies, is donating 25 fig trees to the town. "Each of us will be able to contemplate our navel under a fig tree in Newton. It's very Biblical," says Mayor Mann, sounding as if he may be ready for a rest after all the fig hoopla. Last week, Boston Marathoners chomped Fig Newtons at the prerace carbo-loading party. Outranked nationally only by Oreos and Chips Ahoy!, the sticky centenarian is running as strong as ever.

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