Anzac Biscuits.

I like a good Anzac Biscuit, almost as much as I enjoy a good grumble.
Anzac biscuits were originally baked by anxious wives and mothers during World War I, packed in food parcels, and sent to the Australian soldiers in the trenches
Last week I started a civil confrontation to protect the traditional biscuit in a shiny new chain coffee shop which opened in my local suburb.

On the counter, near the cash register they had a jar labelled "Anzac Cookies” .
I politely explained to the staff that this was a major faux pas, a heresy; showing disrespect for the ANZAC tradition in this country.
Put into plain words, in this country we eat biscuits, not cookies. Put the two words together - as in ‘Anzac biscuit’ - and you have a national icon.
They smiled, and nodded and said ‘Oh’.
Two days later, I saw when passing, they hadn’t changed the sign, they were still trying to sell Anzac cookies.
OK, I thought. Let’s up the ante. So I pulled out my always handy camera, and photographed the offending jar. And I handed the manager a copy of a sheet I carry for such emergencies, copied from Wikipedia (it looks semi official).

Legal issues

The term Anzac is protected under Australian law and therefore the word should not be used without permission from the Minister for Veterans' Affairs; misuse can be legally enforced particularly for commercial purposes. Likewise similar restrictions on naming are enshrined in New Zealan law where the Governor General can elect to enforce naming legislation. There is a general exemption granted for Anzac biscuits, as long as these biscuits remain basically true to the original recipe and are both referred to and sold as Anzac biscuits and never as cookies.
This restriction resulted in the Subway chain of restaurants dropping the biscuit from their menu in September, 2008. After being ordered by the Department of Veterans' Affairs to bake the biscuits according to the original recipe, Subway decided not to continue to offer the biscuit, as they found that their supplier was unable to develop a cost-effective means of duplicating the recipe.

Having read this, the offending staff changed the label on the jar in three minutes  I’ll check back later to see they’ve kept the proper use of the name.
I’ve taken this battle on mis-naming of Anzac Biscuits to the food trolleys on an airline, to a shopping centre (mall) and to the volunteers in a school tech shops.
Some might say I am obsessed, but I don't think I am the only one who is touchy on this subject. There's a coffee shop in Noth Sydney with a jar of Anzac Biscuits labelled differently on each side. The side which faces the public most often says "Anzac cookies". When a complain is lodged, they turn the jar around, so the label reads" Anzac Biscuits". Then when the grumbly customer has gone, they turn the jar back around.
Alright, I can’t hope to hold back the tide of language or cultural corruption completely. Let them sell their chocolate brownies, and their oatmeal cookies.
Some things are essentially Australian, and if  I - or you- accept their greedy corruption, really, what’s left to be proud of?.
That means I need to make a bit of a fuss when something in which I believe is challenged, or changed through ignorance and disrespect. There have to be some limits to tolerance
I become what I accept.
If I passively accept changes to the culture I cherish then me, and my culture, becomes tangibly eroded.
There are some Australian expressions which are semi sacred, and I will fight their sloppy replacement with an American-ism, as hard and as often as I can.
One such profanity is this habit of American wannabes to call an ‘Anzac Biscuit’ an ‘Anzac Cookie’. No, NO, and NO BLOODY WAY.