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Inside the Pennsylvania Bakery Whose ‘Cookie Count’ Called the Last 3 Elections

What can we glean from the crowds flocking to Lochel’s in Hatboro—30 minutes outside of Philadelphia—for Trump cookies?…

It’s not even 2 p.m. in Hatboro, Pennsylvania, on the day before Election Day, and Lochel’s Bakery is all sold out of Trump cookies. “We’re out for today,” owner Kathleen Romano Lochel calls to the crowd of people—mostly women, almost all white—who have been lining up outside the cozy, teal-painted bakery since well before its 6 a.m. opening time.

Lochel’s has been a local favorite ever since it opened its Hatboro location in 1984 and is best known for its elaborate, multitiered wedding and confirmation cakes. This level of attention, though, is something nobody—least of all its owners—could have predicted. Customers are driving in from New Jersey, Virginia, Delaware, and beyond; orders are coming in from all over the country; members of the press, including a pair of Russian TV reporters from Moscow, circle the line hungrily.

The reason for Lochel’s sudden celebrity? The cookies. In 2008, the Lochel family, who has owned the bakery for three generations, experimented with selling sugar cookies iced with the names of Barack Obama and John McCain, inviting customers to buy their preferred candidate’s cookie and tallying up the results. The winner was Obama, and two months later, he was sworn in as president. The same thing happened in 2012, and soon Lochel’s “cookie count” became as accurate a bellwether as any for the results of the presidential election. (More so than some polls, even; when national polling had Hillary Clinton leading in 2016, Lochel’s cookie count correctly pointed to Donald Trump.)

The notion of an iced, liberally sprinkled cookie predicting the results of an American election might sound bizarre, but as in all things, context matters. Lochel’s is in Montgomery County, a region just 30 minutes from Philadelphia that has traditionally skewed blue. The county, though, sits squarely in Pennsylvania, a state whose battleground status cannot be overestimated; just a few hours north lies Luzerne County, whose 2016 swing toward Trump was the subject of a 2018 book.

Jean, a Lochel’s employee, shows off two of the bakery’s signature cakes.
Image may contain Human Person and Food
Cailin, Lochel’s store manager, with a fresh batch of Trump cookies

Superstition and sugar aside, there’s plenty to be learned from the people lined up outside Lochel’s just 24 hours before the polls open in Pennsylvania. “If I were to put on social media that I support Trump, I feel I would lose friends,” says Megan, 32, who lives just 15 minutes from Lochel’s. “I’m not embarrassed, but I’m not going to make myself a target; I’m more of the silent majority.”

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Entertainment

A$AP Rocky Turned An Entire Manchester City Kit Into His Album Rollout

A$AP Rocky at South by Southwest 2019
Photo: DannyB Photos / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

A$AP Rocky doesn’t do album rollouts quietly, and this one recruited an entire Premier League club to help. Manchester City, PUMA, and Rocky teamed up on a limited apparel run tied to “Don’t Be Dumb,” his 2026 album, timed around his September 5th show at Co-op Live.

The centerpiece is a long-sleeve PUMA King jersey in black and archive gold, with “DON’T BE DUMB” running down the sleeve and AWGE branding worked in throughout. A bold “MANCHESTER” graphic covers the back. Fans could also add limited “A$AP 11” name-and-number printing onto the club’s actual Home, Away, or Third kits, while supplies lasted at retail.

There’s a players-only version too, and it never went up for sale. That one sticks closer to City’s usual sky-blue identity, with its own sleeve detailing and back graphic — the kind of piece that exists purely because a handful of people got lucky.

The whole rollout kicked off with a one-night pop-up on September 4th, when PUMA turned a spot in Manchester’s Northern Quarter into a pop-up cafe for the night, mixing football, music, and street style into one room before the wider release hit the stadium store the next morning. Some of those jerseys even came with golden tickets to the concert or that Saturday’s match.

Rocky has called the project true to his own design language, and it’s not even his only club collaboration this cycle — a similar drop with AC Milan landed around the same time. At this point, the line between fashion week and matchday has basically disappeared.

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Entertainment

Quavo And Lids Are Going All In On Atlanta With Their New Cap Pack

Quavo photographed in 2019
Photo: Finish Line / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)

Quavo has never been shy about his hat obsession, and Lids just gave him another outlet for it. Their new “Atlanta” pack drops September 12th, marking another round in a partnership that’s been running strong since 2019.

The collection is a love letter to the city, spread across three very different caps. One mashes up pinstripes, script lettering, and Braves branding into a single design, working navy, red, white, and light blue into the mix. Another goes the opposite direction entirely — fully iced out in crystal detailing, done up in black and red, with both the Falcons and the Braves showing up in the design. The third strips things back to an old-school “ATL” trucker cap in red, white, and gold, the kind of understated piece that lets the city’s name do the talking.

None of this is new territory for Quavo. He’s talked before about waiting on hat releases as a kid, and that same excitement seems to be what’s kept this partnership going years past most celebrity collabs. His earlier Lids run leaned on one moment — the Braves’ 1995 World Series win — but this pack pulls from the city’s whole sports history instead of just one highlight.

Lids has called Quavo one of the rare voices who can blend music, fashion, and sports without it feeling forced, and this drop backs that up. Given how fast his past releases have moved, Atlanta might want to set an alarm for September 12th.

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