Popology
"Come over to the dark side... we
have candy" -
Anonymous
 Did
you know that the oldest commercial shown on TV is
for Tootsie Pops? Yes, the very one featuring Mr. Owl, which
first aired in 1969. The original version was 60-seconds
long and
featured a cow, a fox, a turtle and the famous avian, but
the current
one only uses the last owlish 15 seconds.
We all have nostalgiac memories of our younger days, engaged
in some juvenile endeavour with
a cherry Tootsie Pop clamped firmly in one jaw, but
allow me to now recommend them as a new type of diet food.
Seriously.
The next time you want a big, fat slice of devil's food
cake or a bowl of ice cream for dessert, reach for a Tootsie
Pop instead. They're only 60 calories and can, if enjoyed
judiciously, take at least ten or fifteen minutes to finish.
Compare that to
the
120
calories
in a single
cookie that's gone in seconds, only to be quickly followed
by more of the same.
Pop's come in a variety of flavors and they're a dandy
treat to sneak into the theatre as they're dead easy
to conceal. ("Are
you glad to see the movie or is that a grape Tootsie Pop
in your pocket?")
I reacquainted myself with Tootsie Pops a couple of Halloweens ago when
I bought a bag of the half-sized miniatures. Visitors were
light that night so I had most of the bag left over the
next day. I proceeded to happily polish them off, limiting myself
to four or five a day.
Then I did some research and found there were several levels
of quality within the genre, the lowest being those crummy
miniatures. The next step up were the full-sized, bagged
variety found
in
grocery
stores. But
the really good stuff are the singles sold in most convenience
stores. You'll know them as they have a UPC code on the
stick. These are generally larger and, thus, have more
mouth appeal. Yum.
So I buy them in bulk now, 100 to the box, from various
sellers on the net. I now have plenty on hand when friends
drop by, and no one says no to a free Tootsie Pop.
The only problem I have is the relatively small selection
of flavors, which gets a bit boring. It's basically the
big five (grape, chocolate, cherry,
strawberry,
orange) and a few random weirdo flavors (blue raspberry,
watermelon and pomegrante). But where is lemon? Or coconut?
How about mocha, dark chocolate, banana or mango? The company's
web site, tootsie.com, let's you vote on new flavors but
so far I haven't got much response to my suggestions.
Finally, wikipedia has
a page full of fascinating lore surrounding the humble Tootsie
Pop and rather than quote it directly
I encourage you to go check it out for yourself.
=mike=
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