# Why Is Donald Rumsfeld on This Package of Spicy Peanuts? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 9, 2011, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-donald-rumsfeld-on-this-package-of-spicy-peanuts/605583 "2011-12-09T02:38:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-donald-rumsfeld-on-this-package-of-spicy-peanuts/605583/1 "2011-12-09T02:38:24Z")
> **[Why Is Donald Rumsfeld on This Package of Spicy Peanuts? | TIME.com](https://world.time.com/2011/12/07/why-is-donald-rumsfeld-on-this-package-of-spicy-peanuts/)** > > There are, in this salty tale of frolics, politics and peanuts, a number of what Donald Rumsfeld, might call known knowns. These are things we know that we know — like how a photograph of a young Rumsfeld, a chopstick balanced on his protruding upper... > [@](#): > > There are, in this salty tale of frolics, politics and peanuts, a number of what Donald Rumsfeld, might call known knowns. These are things we know that we know—such as how a photograph of a young Rumsfeld, a chopstick balanced on his protruding upper lip as he gazes at a giggling Geisha, came to decorate packets of U.K. snack food manufacturer Tyrrell’s Spicy Coated Peanuts. “All our packs feature imagery which aims to be rather entertaining, quirky and just a bit different from the norm of popping a slice of cheese and an onion on the front of a pack,” emails Oliver Rudgard, Tyrrell’s Marketing Director. “We thought this image was in line with our brand’s light-hearted and slightly eccentric view on life.” [More (with a SFW picture)…](http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2011/12/07/why-is-donald-rumsfeld-on-this-package-of-spicy-peanuts/) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-donald-rumsfeld-on-this-package-of-spicy-peanuts/605583/2 "2011-12-09T03:35:07Z")
This bit from the photo’s backstory is even more amusing: > [@](#): > > Rumsfeld, then the White House Chief of Staff, participated in this Japanese parlor game that involved passing a piece of straw held between the upper lip and nose to the person next to him (a Geisha dressed in colorful attire, in this case). Rumsfeld, defying tradition as is his way, used a chopstick instead of the obligatory straw. **The nose-down winner, however, was Sec[retary of State Henry] Kissinger, who invoked the ‘closer-to-the-upper-lip-with-his-schnoz’ rule**, thereby defeating Rumsfeld and President Ford, who was also in the competition. Bolding mine. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-donald-rumsfeld-on-this-package-of-spicy-peanuts/605583/3 "2011-12-09T12:39:34Z")
They’re _SPICY_ peanuts. They put him on there because they inspire Shock and Awe. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-donald-rumsfeld-on-this-package-of-spicy-peanuts/605583/4 "2011-12-09T12:59:26Z")
> [@](#): > > the packaging was an unknown unknown Inspired writing. > [@davidm](#): > > SFW picture You never fail to disappoint. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-donald-rumsfeld-on-this-package-of-spicy-peanuts/605583/5 "2011-12-09T13:05:08Z")
_The photographer finds its new deployment startling but curiously apt. “It’s a clever and funny campaign,” Kennerly writes. “The nuts are wasabi-coated. **Rumsfeld, as we know, is a person whose actions have often caused people to sweat, so this is fitting.** I’m assuming if the former Secretary of Defense raises hell about it, sales of the peanuts will skyrocket … [But] word has it that he’s quite amused.”_ Bolding mine… although paleing next to Tyrrell’s. It’s perfect, an obviously unrehearsed shot artistically framed and lighted with a famous, yet unrecognizable international celebrity. I’d buy some. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-donald-rumsfeld-on-this-package-of-spicy-peanuts/605583/6 "2011-12-09T13:15:25Z")
Definitely not the first time the phrase “Donald Rumsfeld’s nuts” has been used. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-donald-rumsfeld-on-this-package-of-spicy-peanuts/605583/7 "2011-12-09T14:29:18Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Definitely not the first time the phrase “Donald Rumsfeld’s nuts” has been used. But perhaps the first outing for “I’d like to put Donald’s nuts in my mouth”.