Reading: Trace by Patricia Cornwell
Watching: the Transporter 2

This is a funny little story...and a good recipe for cookies!

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This is sweet revenge. No pun intended.

NEIMAN-MARCUS COOKIES

A little background: Neiman-Marcus, if you don't know already, is a
very expensive store; i.e, they sell your typical $8.00 T-shirt for
$50.00.

My daughter and I had just finished a salad at a Neiman-Marcus Cafe
in Dallas, and we decided to have a small dessert. Because both of us
are such cookie lovers, we decided to try the "Neiman-Marcus cookie."
It was so excellent that I asked if they would give me the recipe,
and the waitress said with a small frown, "I'm afraid not, but you
can buy the recipe." Well, I asked how much, and she responded, "Only
two fifty-it's a great deal!" I agreed to that, and told her to just
add it to my tab.

Thirty days later, I received my VISA statement, and the Neiman-
Marcus charge was $285.00! I looked again, and I remembered I had
only spent $9.95 for two salads and about $20.00 for a scarf. As I
glanced at the bottom of the statement, it said, "Cookie Recipe-
$250.00". That was outrageous!

I called Neiman's Accounting Department and told them the waitress
said it was "two fifty", which clearly does not mean "two hundred and
fifty dollars" by any reasonable interpretation of the phrase. Neiman-
Marcus refused to budge. They would not refund my money because,
according to them, "What the waitress told you is not our problem.
You have already seen the recipe. We absolutely will not refund your
money at this point." I explained to the Accounting Department lady
the criminal statutes which govern fraud in the state of Texas. I
threatened to report them to the Better Business Bureau and the Texas
Attorney General's office for engaging in fraud. I was basically, "Do
what you want. Don't bother thinking of how you can get even, and
don't bother trying to get any of your money back." I just said,
okay, you folks got my $250, and now I'm going to have $250 worth of
fun." I told her that I was going to see to it that every cookie
lover in the United States with an e-mail account has a $250 cookie
recipe from Neiman-Marcus...for free. She replied, "I wish you
wouldn't do this." I said, "Well, perhaps you should have thought of
that before you ripped me off!" and slammed down the phone.

Please, please, please pass it on to everyone you can possibly think
of. I paid $250 for this, and I don't want Neiman-Marcus to EVER make
another penny off of this recipe! So here it is!

NEIMAN-MARCUS COOKIES (Recipe may be halved)

2 cups butter
24 oz. chocolate chips
4 cups flour
2 cups brown sugar
2 tsp. soda
1 tsp. salt
2 cups sugar
1 8 oz. Hershey Bar (grated)
5 cups blended oatmeal
4 eggs
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. vanilla
3 cups chopped nuts (your choice)

Measure oatmeal, and blend in a blender to a fine powder. Cream the
butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla, mix together with
flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and soda. Add chocolate chips,
Hershey Bar, and nuts.
Roll into balls, and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet. Bake
for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes 112 cookies.

PLEASE READ THE RECIPE AND SEND IT TO EVERY PERSON YOU KNOW WHO HAS
AN E-MAIL ADDRESS! (Even if the people on your e-mail list don't eat
sweets send it to them and ask them to pass it on). Let's make sure
we get these ladies $250.00 worth. Enjoy the cookies, they're GREAT !

To all my friends



Love and Light,
Blessed Be,
May the Goddess,
Set you free.