Did you know? Twinkies fun facts

In the 2009 movie “Zombieland,” Woody Harrelson's character has two goals: surviving a zombie apocalypse and finding some Twinkies. (His character, Tallahasee, is a Twinkie fan who knows they don't stay fresh forever.) According to www.omg-facts.com, though, Harrelson ate “special Twinkies” made of cornmeal — not real ones — because he is a vegan.

The 2012 movie “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance” includes a funny take on the “Twinkies last forever” theme. “One demon decays everything he touches — wood and flesh rot, metal rusts and crumbles,” wrote Roger Moore of McLatchy/Tribune News. “Then he picks up a Twinkie, and ... nothing happens.”

Unless something changes, future generations of readers won't understand Stephen King's reference in “Under the Dome” (page 74): “The tar was littered with Devil Dogs, Ho Hos, Ring Dings, Twinkies and peanut butter crackers. A young man in a George Strait tee-shirt sat on a stump, eating one of the latter. He had a cell phone in hand.”

The “Twinkie defense” is a slang term for a legal maneuver in which lawyers try to mitigate a defendant's guilt by blaming what happened on an outside influence, such as environmental, allergic or food reactions. The term dates back to the 1979 murders of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and gay rights activist Harvey Milk. The lawyer for killer Dan White claimed his client was out of his mind from eating sugary foods.