PHOENIX — Wondering what to do with all those marshmallow Peeps you have left over from Easter?
Ever consider jousting?
Neither did we. In fact, we didn't even know what it was until it was explained to us in 2008 by then-Gov. Janet Napolitano.
At a weekly news briefing — yes, Arizona governors then met regularly with the media — the state's top elected official conceded a personal familiarity with something known as "Peeps jousting.''
Huh?
"Well, you take Peeps and you arm them and you put them in the microwave and have at,'' she explained.
Exactly how that works, the governor detailed, involves getting a pair of the colorful marshmallow birds and sticking a toothpick in the front of each one so they sort of look like jousting poles.
The real action occurs when you take the armed Peeps, put them in a microwave, aim them at each other, and turn on the juice.
Peeps marshmallow treats move through the manufacturing process at the Just Born factory in Bethlehem, Pa.
At the very least, both Peeps puff up. Sometimes, however, one Peep's jousting stick will impale the opponent, perhaps even getting it to appear to blow up.
But you're just as likely to be left with two melted Peeps — and a mess on the inside of the oven.
"Yeah, that's a sign of a misspent youth, is what that is,'' Napolitano confessed. "There it is. My deep dark story: Yes, as a child, I did Peeps jousting.''
The governor who since went on to be secretary of Homeland Security, president of the University of California system, and now is director of the Center for Security in Politics at the University of California at Berkeley, refused to tell the assembled media whether she still indulged.
But on her desk at the 2008 briefing — a week and a half before Easter — was a box of Peeps.
