Tale of Two Christmas Cookies

Recently, a myth has arisen about Grandma Mahaney’s Christmas cookies. Dad thinks—believes with all his heart, actually—that the cookies with green icing taste better than the cookies with red icing.
 
That’s absurd, since the only difference is the food coloring. But try telling Dad that. You won’t get anywhere. Common sense reason doesn’t penetrate this illusion.
 
After many exasperated explanations as to how it is not by any means possible for the red and green cookies to taste different; even after Grandma (his own mother!) told him the truth to no effect, we changed tactics.
 
He doesn’t believe us? Fine. We’ll prove it to him.
 
Time for a taste test.
 
Last Christmas, we all crowded around the kitchen table, set a plate of Grandma Mahaney’s Christmas cookies in front of Dad, and blindfolded him.
 
We fed him the first cookie.
 
“Red,” he said.
 
He was right. Lucky guess.
 
Next cookie.
 
“Green,” he said.
 
Right again. Oh, this isn’t good.
 
Third cookie.
 
“Red,” he said.
 
“Gotcha!” we cried. The cookie was green.
 
Finally, we thought, proof they taste the same.
 
Not so fast. We forgot this is Dad we were dealing with. This is the boy who, as permanent quarterback for all the pick-up football games on Hodges Lane, long ago honed the skill of spinning every defeat into a victory.
 
Two out of three, he insisted, is a win.
 
So, here we are, another Christmas, and Dad still insists the green ones are the best.
 
And some kids still believe in Santa Claus.