Meanwhile, in the Great and General Court of the Commonwealth - that's what we call our legislative branch, for historical reasons - debate is heating up on a vital piece of legislation, as here reported in the morning Globe:

An anti-Fluff crusade by a Cambridge state senator appeared to be collapsing yesterday, as a rival measure to designate the Fluffernutter the state sandwich created a new divide over the merits of the tempting, sticky spread.

Last week Senator Jarrett T. Barrios blasted Marshmallow Fluff, saying he was "not sure we should even be calling it a food." Yesterday, his spokesman backed away from such tough talk, saying that Barrios just wanted to spark a general discussion about school nutrition.

Meanwhile, the debate over designating the Fluffernutter the state sandwich drew celebrity chefs, a suburban school food service director, and the chief executive of Brigham's Ice Cream into the whipped-up fray.

It's no wonder the issue has caused such controversy. Fluff, in all its gooey, sugary ubiquity, seems to tap into people's earliest childhood memories of eating Fluffernutters on paper plates at summer camp, school , and neighbors' backyards.

"For anybody in politics in Massachusetts to take a stance against Fluff, I'm tempted to say it's almost anti-American," said Justin Schwartz, author of "The Marshmallow Fluff Cookbook," a 148-page compendium of Fluff recipes from some of America's leading chefs. "It is definitely anti-Massachusetts. It's like, 'Let's ban pineapples in Hawaii.' Come on! It doesn't make any sense."

He's right; it doesn't.

Make any sense, that is.

But I suppose if fluff - or Fluff - belongs anywhere, it's in our legislature, where it will get all the attention it deserves.

Full disclosure: I'm a jam or jelly man, when it comes to peanut butter sandwiches; always have been; always will be.

Time to turn to the sports pages . . .

I think.

Update:

Okay, now it's getting ugly up there on Beacon Hill.

From Hub Politics (of course) this:

You've Got Mail, Senator Barrios

"Keep the fluff out of the State House, and keep your hands off the Fluff in school cafeterias."

That is the message found in a nice care package en route to Senator Jarrett Barrios' State House office, containing with it, a tub of Fluff.

No joke. Hub Politics has indeed sent a tub of Fluff to Senator Barrios.

There are pictures.

If you've had your lunch, go over there and see for yourself.

How sticky this is all getting to be.

Further Update:

WOW!

Brit Hume picked up on the story - possibly not from this site, but you never know - and included it on his Political Grapevine segment moments ago:

A Fluffernutter war has broken out in the Massachusetts state legislature after a Democratic Senator introduced a bill to limit the marshmallow and peanut butter sandwich in public schools. Senator Jarrett Barrios calls the snack pure junk and has added it to the list of foods banned by a new healthy schools bill.

But that's not sitting well with Democratic Congresswoman Kathi-Anne Reinstein, who represents the district that makes the sandwich's gooey Marshmallow Fluff.

She's submitted a proposal to make the Fluffernutter the Massachusetts state sandwich and is inviting her fellow lawmakers to sign on to "preserve the legacy of this local delicacy."

I knew this was going to get ugly.

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