Day 28: Odds and Ends

I’m in denial. This is Halloween week and I am both overjoyed and heartily dismayed. I am excited for Halloween to be here already but once it is, I will have to wait another 364 days till the next one. Sigh.

I got a bit sidetracked when I was writing my October Thought. Last night a few friends messaged me asking if they could borrow things from my costume closet for Halloween. In theory I understand the idea of last minute costumes, but since I plan for mine years in advance I kinda shake my head at them. After we solved the imminent crisis, I started innocently browsing through costume ideas for next year and the year after. 2 hours and 5 costumes later I realized what time it was and shut down my Google search.

Then I typed out my October Thought. I was almost done and my computer decided it was tired and shut itself off. No biggie. I rebooted it and it came on just long enough to laugh at me and then shut off again. When I finally got it up and running my original Thought was lost. It wasn’t a story thank goodness, but the mojo to rewrite it was gone and my eye lids are getting heavy. Since I made you read lots yesterday, today will be short and it will be an accumulation of October tidbits that I have been accruing all month.

1)      In Manila there are people who live in graveyards. Not dead people, live people. They have stores and wells and mail, it’s like the suburbs but your neighbors are really, really quiet and sometimes smell. I have looked up pictures of it and it is crazy. It is incredibly sad, but it gets my creative juices flowing.

 

2)      Also in Manila, you don’t buy your plot and stay, you rent your semi eternal resting place. Plots are sold on a five-year lease. If at the end of the five years the lease isn’t renewed you are dug up and returned to your family or incinerated if there is no one to give you to. Man, Manila is harsh.

 

3)      It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown will no longer air on TV. I am greatly dismayed by this even though I own it. It is a holiday TV staple and how dare they take it from me.

 

4)      There is a Vampire Rabbit of Newcastle  upon Tyne in England. The bloodthirsty bunny is basically a gargoyle that sits above the door of a cathedral. People aren’t really sure if it is a bunny, but they have repainted it in modern times to look a bit more menacing and it is said to scare off thieves/intruders. It certainly looks frightening.

 

5)      There was a pop up parade in the town where I work and I totally somehow missed it. I was out on the street exactly when it was supposed to be happening and everyone must have been invisible because I saw nothing. I did however delight a small child and his parents who were walking around doing the scavenger hunt. I opened mom’s window to see if I could help them as they were wandering and looked lost. The little boy took one look at my monster shield mask and his whole face lit up. Mommy look at the monster. He had better have been talking about my shield is all I’m saying. He really liked it and I’m glad I chose to wear that particular one.  

 

6)      I found a discount bag of gummy body parts candy and I still didn’t buy it. I should get a medal or a free bag of gummy body parts.

 

7)      In Goffstown, New Hampshire there is a Giant Pumpkin Regatta and I am jealous that I am not there. People hollow out these incredibly large pumpkins and paddle them down the river. I mean, how AWESOME is that?! Plus they decorate their giant thousand pound pumpkins. I think I have found my people.

 

8)      I just found out that the 25^th is called Frankenstein Friday. Even if it doesn’t fall on a Friday apparently. How could I have missed this milestone? Devastated.

 

9)      And last but not least, the Today Show Bracketween Candy Challenge. Your particular favorite might not be on there, but mine sure was. I took the challenge and my final four were Twix, Almond Joy, Snickers, and Butterfinger, with Twix going head to head with Snickers. Twix won out over all. It was a hard fought win though. What would yours come out as if you did the bracket?

October Thought Day 21: The Classics Never Go Out of Style

We’ve come to the point in the October Thoughts where my mother asks if I have written about candy corn yet. I told her no and that I was thinking skipping it this year because what more is there really to say on the subject. She was quite disappointed and it occurred to me that candy corn for her is like my Halloween tape to me. Who was I to stand in the way of a tradition? So I scoured the internet and found some tasty tidbits about my mother’s favorite tri-colored treat. Here we go.

For something that was invented in the 1880’s candy corn has held up considerably well. Rather than fading into obscurity like some holiday confections, it has grown and evolved and continues to do so. I could say that candy corn is unique to October, but like most prosperous things, it has branched out and expanded to other parts of the year as well. Now there is a type of candy corn for almost every holiday. The only one not coopted so far as I can tell is St. Patrick’s Day.

According to the internet, candy corn is the top selling candy with American’s purchasing over 20 million pounds of it a year. If all the kernels sold were laid out end to end, they would wrap around the earth 4.25 times. That’s a lot of corn; and now I’m picturing Earth with a candy corn ring around it. How cool would that be! Candy corn is also the most searched for candy term in Google, and out of all 50 states, people in Alabama search for it the most. I have no idea why. Once a candy corn bag is opened, if stored properly it should last 3-6 months, if unopened nine.

I enjoy seeing what the candy corn companies come up with year to year; they never fail to surprise and delight. During my pumpkin spice buying binge I managed to come across three, no make that six new types of corn and of course I had to give almost all of them a test run.

There are the new Fall Brunch Favorites, which consist of French Toast & Maple Syrup, which tastes almost exactly like it sounds. Then there is Waffles & Strawberry, which surprisingly tastes more like waffles than strawberry. Rounding out the mix is the Chocolate Chip Pancake candy corn that as far as I can tell tastes exactly like regular candy corn. I was a bit disappointed by that one.

Then there are the chocolate candy corns, Birthday Cake and Chocolate Sea Salt. The birthday cake corn tastes exactly like a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting and the chocolate sea salt is very nice. I couldn’t really taste the salt, but that’s not a bad thing. There is also a Peanut Butter Cup candy corn which I was not brave enough to try. After all, a girl has to draw the line somewhere. Peanut butter cup candy corn just sounds too weird.

While I was searching the web for candy corn facts, I found out that they also came out with a Caramel candy corn this year. Now that sounds promising. During my search I also came across a candy horoscope that gives you a chart of popular Halloween candy and you pick which is your favorite. If you happen to choose candy corn, your Halloween candy horoscope calls you an “illusionist” and explains that “You keep people at a distance so as not to reveal your true self, adapting your personality to fit in with those around you.” I think that’s a touch heavy handed for a simple candy choice, but then again, it is an online quiz about candy.

While I love candy corn dearly, I am not as crazy about it as I am pumpkin spice. Some candy corn products go a bit too far in my estimation, like the candy corn flavored Oreos. Maybe it’s because I really don’t like Oreo’s all that much, but candy corn flavored ones weird me out. They just sound wrong. There are also candy corn MnM’s which I seem to recall not being overly fond of, candy corn popcorn and Fruity Pebbles cereal which both sound horrible, but not as horrible as candy corn coffee. There are also candy corn marshmallows which are good, candy corn kisses which are ok, candy corn Dots which can swing from yuck to yum in the same tasting and my new favorite, Hershey’s candy corn chocolate. I thought it might turn out to be not so great, but it is heaven in a wrapper. I can’t even begin to describe it, it’s that good. If you see a bag, I highly recommend that you grab it.

Brach’s is my favorite purveyor of the tri-colored deliciousness and the only other company that can even compare is Jelly Belly which makes its own wonderful corn contribution. Handy fact, if you find yourself with extra time on your hands and a solid piece of clay, you can actually make an ear of corn out of your candy corn. Exciting stuff I know.

There is a National Candy Corn Day on October 30^th and now that you are well armed with all sorts of candy corn trivia and product recommendations you can celebrate accordingly. If any of you are brave enough to try the peanut butter cup corn, let me know how it goes.