Eating Velveeta in Tehran

This is almost enough to restore one's faith that the people's of the world will overcome their differences and avert nuclear war: This Onionesque headline reports that the Iranian confectioners union has renamed Danish pastries - which are evidently all the rage in Persia - Roses of the Prophet Mohammed. Rather than banishing their beloved cheese danish, bakers have covered up signs that remind their countrymen of the raging controversy over the Muslim cartoons published in Danish newspaper Jyllands -Postens, replacing them with homages to the maligned seer.

The move echoes the redubbing of French Fries sold in the Capital Hill cafeteria as "Freedom Fries" after the French declined to support the American-led invasion of Iraq. By taking a page from a sorely misguided Republican Congressman, the Iranian bakers have, amidst a tense international fracas, offered the people of Iran, the US and the rest of the world a chance to step back and share a good laugh that maybe, just maybe, could point the way toward some broader common ground.