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Punition. New York, NY (via Paris, France)
All last week, my boss (which I guess is a relative term since technically everyone in the office is my boss) was on vacation in Paris with her family. From the looks of her fabulous post-vacation glow, she had a particularly lovely time, and upon her return this morning she left a delightful surprise on the paralegal/secretarial credenza. These cookies come from Poilâne, a renowned French bakery whose founder, Pierre Poilâne, firmly believed in doing as much work by hand as possible and felt that a single baker should take responsibility for his/her loaf from start to finish. A fellow perfectionist, swoon! Oh, and the Poilâne cookies my boss shared with us are called “Punitions” which is French for –
. . . wait for it . . .
punishment.
Okay, to be fair, the bakery’s website says the name “comes from a little game Pierre Poilâne’s grandmother used to play [where] she would call over her grandchildren seemingly to punish them and, instead, would open her palms to reveal a handful of butter cookies…” Seriously, though, I think Pierre might be on to something. Maybe next time I violate an office policy or lose a highly confidential document I’ll get a perfectly wrapped box of Punitions instead of oh, I don’t know, fired. Hey, it could happen. [McWorld!]