In the last edition of Food Court, I offered a recipe for Crybaby Cookies and admitted I did not know why they were called that. Well, now I have two answers and both make sense to me. Guilford Courier reader Norma Hart says as far as she knows, there was a belief way back when that if you gave one to a toddler who was crying, teething, or otherwise out-of-sorts, it would calm them down and “all would be well.” Wouldn’t that be nice! And, of course, never feed a baby under two years old anything with molasses in it. And Kathy McDonald Richards, who lives in Massachusetts, says her gramma, who lived here on the shoreline in Madison, used to make them “because we would cry until she made them.” Sounds good to me! Hart adds, “I think it’s a good recipe for anyone.”

—Pem McNerney