55Friday: The “Candy Everybody Wants” Edition

Cadbury.jpg

When I’m not listening to Accuradio at work, the wee leetle iPod, it is on the shuffle. Like all other gadget-addicted fruit-lovers, I marvel at how the seemingly random is the utterly awesome, since I like every tune that gets served up, every time.

This, despite the fact that I am the one who chose to load all my favorite songs on to Suitable iPod in the first place, thus making me an ingrate for feeling so much wonder at what I, not shuffle, hath wrought. Maybe it’s the timing of it all, i.e. how the perfect song always seems to play at the exact moment it should? How else to explain why Depeche Mode’s “Master and Servant” blares when I’m reading about Dick Cheney and Dubya… 😉

Anyway, I’ve heard the song which inspires this week’s nanofiction orgy 2-3 times a day, every day this week thanks to shuffling. It’s one of my favorite joints of all time, in part because I sweat Natalie Merchant’s voice so so very much. So, since I already had mancandy on the brain and there is ALWAYS candy in my tummy, this week is dedicated to sweet stuff, which seems especially apposite when baskets everywhere are being filled with goodies which will make dentists rich in a few months.

Write about sugar, peeps, sour patch kids or that totem of my childhood which is pictured to the left, Cadbury fruit and nut. I’ve had everything from Hershey’s to handmade, exorbitantly-priced truffles and no chocolate is more delicious or makes me feel more loved; if it’s from England (where it tastes better!) I feel positively adored.

Write 55 words (exactly 55 words, no need to be Hemingway) inspired by the lyrics to “Candy Everybody Wants” or about your own sugar-fix in the comments below. If you are in a salty mood, disregard the weekly theme. We just want to read, so get typing.


if lust and hate is the candy
if blood and love tastes so sweet
then we give ’em what they want
hey, hey, give ’em what they want
so their eyes are growing hazy
‘cos they wanna turn it on
so their minds are soft and lazy
well, hey, give ’em what they want
if lust and hate is the candy
if blood and love tastes so sweet
then we give ’em what they want
so their eyes are growing hazy
‘cos they wanna turn it on
so their minds are soft and lazy
well… who do you want to blame?
hey, hey, give ’em what they want

43 thoughts on “55Friday: The “Candy Everybody Wants” Edition

  1. oh anna… i just finished my cadbury fruit and nut bar yesterday… i brought it from england a few weeks back.. nothing like bringing back loads of real cadbury (yes, it tastes MUCH better than the american cadbury.. maybe they have better cows..)… for my 55..and that great 10,000 maniacs sound…don’t have time to write a 55, but props to british cadbury…

  2. Not to burst your Friday candy-bubble, but have you seen the fat content on the UK/India Cadbury’s bars? It’s much higher than regular Hershey bars in the US.

    But since I am all for tubing whipped cream directly into my veins, that is not a concern for me. I leave the lipidous bean-counting to the weak and proceed to break myself off a bigger set of tiles on that bar. But many moons ago, when I was a kid and chocolate was rationed, to the point that it was almost currency — e.g.’That theme-park ride costs 8 Cadbury’s bars, so is it worth it?’ — the commercials showing people eat the whole bar at once, biting through multiple tiles at once, seemed so decadent. It was as it they were wallowing in it, like Scrooge McDuck swimming in his gold vault.

  3. here’s my 55 …

    lindz-poo: have you tried the new KitKat blizzard? vietboi: what? lindz-poo: DQ has a new blizzard out. It’s so yum! vietboi: i don’t eat fast food. lindz-poo: it’s just candy and ice cream. don’t be such a snob. vietboi: i can’t get excited about being sugar high. i’m not 5. lindz-poo: you’re such a loser.

  4. Maybe it’s the timing of it all, i.e. how the perfect song always seems to play at the exact moment it should?

    I have the mother of all perfect songs story. I never get out of my car before the song is finished. It’s just flat out disrespectful. One day I broke the rule and went home, leaving Prince midway through Raspberry Beret. Turned on the TV and rest of the song came on right on cue.

  5. Nobody can put it better than Ogden Nash:

    Candy is dandy But liquor is quicker

  6. Haven’t eaten commercial candy in over a decade- Are the nuts roasted or raw?

    English cows are ‘appy cows! (Like California cows)

  7. Numbers don’t count

    Chocolate, fruit and nuts.

    Ingredients for the dessert I plant to make. For Dinner. For 2. Doomed from the start, dinner and dessert, but I swallow my fear. I write:

    1. Cake: chocolate, fruit and nuts.
    2. Opening lines: Improvise.
    3. Clothing: Black. For everything.
    4. To follow: An unknown.

    Chocolate, fruit and nuts?

    1. Call off insane dinner.

    Serenity returns.

    (No, it’s not autobiographical or wishful. Chocolate reminds me of comfort food and comfort books, like the much dreaded feminine fiction of chick lit, that replacer of the bodice ripper in the pantheon of all that is feminine and vaguely literary. I predict the demise of the current varieties of chick lit, just as the gothic, the nurse/doctor romance novel, and the bodice ripper too faded away, cultural artifacts now, to be studied in some small department of women’s studies, trash-in-amber, waiting to be PH’d-ed. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)

  8. yes, it tastes MUCH better than the american cadbury.. maybe they have better cows

    Thats cause the american Cadbury isn’t the real deal.. its really Hersheys crap sold under the Cadbury brand.

    From wikipedia

    Although Cadbury Schweppes chocolate products have been sold in the U.S. since 1988 under the Cadbury trademark name, the chocolate itself has been manufactured by Hershey’s and can be found in Hershey’s chocolate stores.
  9. “OMG.”

    “What?”

    “Natalie left 10,000 Maniacs!”

    “WHAT?”

    “Why do my favorite groups keep breaking up?”

    “Seriously. First the Pixies…now this…”

    “That means Nirvana is the last group I love, which is still intact.”

    “I don’t know…I feel like they’re so good, they won’t last either…”

    “Don’t say that! Please don’t jinx them.”

    “I’m just saying…”

  10. It was a new city, a new place,
    I sat by the window on a bar stool, She walked by; I jumped up, smiled and waved like a fool. After giving me a bear hug, she started second-guessing, I pulled out a box of truffles and four months later, we were standing right there, kissing.

  11. dark, strong, fleetin hot in hand, hotter in mouth liquid love, dripping sweet heart racing, mind pulsing legs aquiver, fingers numb frightening joy be quick don’t get caught wipe your chin evidence to the wind walk quickly steal a glance guilt remorse sweet revenge they’ll never know who ate it….

  12. This is totally not my 55, just a comment. Does anyone else’s mom love those little fruit squares that are coated in powdered sugar? (not gelatin, like the Sunkist candy circles)

    DDiA – that’s why it tastes soooo good 🙂

    ANNA, I was listening to the same album yesterday and remembering how much I love this song. Ahhh, the shout out.

  13. hehehehe. another brit lover.

    ahh.. london is my second home.. so much family there.. heathrow is my best friend :), gatwick is the evil stepsister.

  14. For my fellow Cadburys-In-England enthusiasts (set to the tune of ‘Wild Thing’)

    Wispa Mint You make my heart sing I got you in the Tube, smoothly I said, Wispa Mint I think I love you, but I gotta take another bite for sure.

    Sadly this delicious-ness was discontinued. I’ll have always have the memories, sigh.

  15. even better is the fruit and nut from india, it has almonds, raisins AND cashews in it!

  16. Gems Little, round, rainbow, So much like M&Ms So much better though.

    I poured them into my small dusty hand, so long ago, so high on the veranda, in the hot dusty Bombay december. I did not share them with my sister.

  17. I was late and anxious, then serene after his text: “Don’t worry. Take your time.”

    As I approached, I scanned the packed coffeehouse through its helpful glass wall, looking for a South Indian boy whom I’d never met.

    He waved. I smiled.

    It would end up being our first date…but I didn’t know that yet.

  18. It was always a nickel pressed into each of our hands, my sister’s and mine, for the pool canteen. Enough for one piece of Laffy Taffy. I sat and stared at the Lick-em-Stix, the Runts and Nerds, the Fruit-By-The-Foot that could be bought for a dollar, imagining their taste.

    Now – too late – they’re just sugar.

  19. DDiA — oh-my-goodness we have the same story. My parents would ration out candy bars and Easter chocolate, giving us only a smidgen at a time. Now, taking a giant bite from a candy bar (finishing the entire thing in one sitting!) feels lush and almost vulgar. ^__^

  20. I like more chocolate in my chocolate:

    Most British factories are not even set up to make high-grade chocolate – in fact, very little of it gets produced anywhere in the English-speaking world. The growing chocolate monopolies (Big Chocolate) dominate in the British (Cadbury, Mars and Nestlé), US (Hershey, Mars and Nestlé), Australian (Nestlé and Cadbury) and Canadian (where Cadbury recently bought out Neilson) markets. These firms’ bread-and-butter is a low-cost, heavily-advertised candy designed to gain high market share. The average cocoa content is in the 20-per-cent range – quality chocolate comes closer to 40 or 50 per cent, or even more. ‘Historically, the English have not wanted their chocolate to taste much like chocolate. Indeed, they haven’t gone for any strong flavours at all. When you bite into most English commercial chocolate the first sensation is a sweetish toffee kind of taste.’

    [No, it’s not a 55, just a point about Chocolate]

  21. Yes I was sorely aggrieved when I ate a Cadbury FruitnNut bar that I bought at Walgreens. Should have known better!! I’ll pay the extra $$$ for some Cote D’Or dark chocolate with hazelnuts. My mum used to buy a quality bar of chocolate for us as an after-dinner treat… but only after we’d eaten some fruit AND walked solemnly around the apartment for about 10 minutes and then we had all had to line up ( including my dad) for the squares she’d sternly ration out. Ah, good times.

  22. Any more bitching about Cadbury and I’ll start a-bannin’. Kidding. Well, maybe not. I mean, can’t you do it in 55 words? 😉

  23. A half-eaten Double-Decker bar, crawling with red ants, in his pocket. His first and last party in Bombay. With Parsi girls who drank, smoke, danced and squeezed his cheeks. Mamaji tells him not to mention any of this to Grandmother. The girls ask why he looks so nervous. He confesses, “I have ants in my pants.”

  24. Now, taking a giant bite from a candy bar (finishing the entire thing in one sitting!) feels lush and almost vulgar. ^__^

    Lush & Vulgar —> Chocolate —-> Brown “Once you go brown, you can only go down!”

    On a less threadjacking note, does anyone love Bacci bars? They are northern Italian bars with nuts in them. And shimi, I still have a pack of Cote d’Or from my last connection through CDG 🙂

  25. Camille,

    little fruit squares that are coated in powdered sugar

    desi jujubes (sp?)

  26. On a less threadjacking note, does anyone love Bacci bars?

    If you’re talking about Perugina’s perfection, I love kisses:

    Their most famous product is “Baci”, chocolate “kisses” filled with hazelnut, wrapped in a multilingual (Italian, English, French, German, and Greek) love note. It is said that the Baci shape was created by throwing a ball of chocolate against a wall. This gave Baci their flat bottom. [viki]
  27. The Baci is notorious in my family. Usually a sign of a good gift-basket rather than the horrid russel stover abominations.

  28. Russell Stover is so ASS. I thought “Whitman’s” tasted like garbage, then I discovered the putrid ickiness which is RS. Eww, ewww, ewwwww.

    1) See’s 2) Cadbury UK 3) Lindt/Godiva/Baci.

  29. Ha Ha, SM Intern, don’t get me wrong. I used to flove Cadbury Fruit and Nuts when I was a young ‘un; but the American version is crap pressed into chocolate-shaped squares. I’ll always be a dark chocolate kind of girl, but the original Cadbury’s will always have a special place in my heart.

  30. There is no doubt UK/European chocolates are better than American. More cocoa, more fat, less sugar. Even UK KittKatt tastes better than American. Whenever I go to India, I fly via Heathrow, and buy about $100 worth of plain Cadbury Dairy Milk and Nestle Milk Chocolate (again, very different from American Nestle). My first 55.

  31. When I was yay tall and wide as a lamppost, I read Dahl. Naptime came to mean “Eatable Marshmallow Pillows.” Spelling, math, and “Who’s talking!?! Is that you?” was a good time for “Invisible Chocolate Bars for Eating in Class.” Fiddlesticks. Dreams were for the Pigtails and Ribbons. Pockets became holsters for my Cadbury weaponry.

  32. the original cadbury family were quakers and to enjoy a true quaker delight you have to go do talkingstick in nyc.

    “The “talking stick” is a group decision-making tool or can also be a way in which people entertained themselves in longhouses telling stories during thelong, cold winter nights. The person who holds the “talking stick” in a circle is the only one who is allowed to speak to the group.

    The Quakers utilize a similar process of a decision-making “council,” with people seated in a circle, who speak, one at a time on the topic at hand. In Native American culture, the Talking Stick is started by the “leader” who uses it to address the group. No one may speak or respond to the speaker unless they are passed the Talking Stick. Once the person has finished, it is passed from person to person around the circle until it reaches the end. At this point, the decision will or will not be manifest.”

  33. SM Intern, Neale:

    Does anyone else’s mom love those little fruit squares that are coated in powdered sugar?
    Aplets and Cotlets?

    Yes! My mama loves Cotlets, and I really can’t figure out why. They kind of gross me out a little.

    UK Cadbury’s, soooo superior. Not too bad in Kenya, either, although much sweeter. The best Cadbury creation, in my opinion, is still the Cadbury Egg. I know that sounds disgusting, but at least I didn’t say I love Peeps 🙂

  34. Yes! My mama loves Cotlets, and I really can’t figure out why. They kind of gross me out a little.

    Cotlets are icky. 🙂 No offense to Auntie. 😉 And if you mean the Cadbury creme egg, unless it’s the chocolate or caramel one, I’m grossed out by THOSE. Far too realistic. The mini-eggs, however are divine.

  35. I’m sure she won’t be offended – I tell her how disgusting Cotlets are all the time 😉

    I know, Creme eggs definitely gross out most of my friends, as well :-/ Something about the caramel and chocolate egg just don’t taste as good to me. And the mini-eggs really are wonderful – probably one of the best new “Cadbury egg” products 🙂

  36. How much do I love thee? let me count the ways. Flake is definitely my fav But Twirl is what I always crave 100 Grand I can eat, eat, eat, ten times every day! Lindt is for when I’m feeling groovy Or raisinettes when I’m watching a movie
    But my ultimate sweet spot lies with the delectable Ferrero-Roche 🙂

  37. There is milk chcoclate i pick up at the Trader Joe’s checkout. Its Yummy – i think its called Sports. Up there with Lindt..

  38. And here I thought desi fruit&nut was a fob-secret-guilty-pleasure. Talk about a self-selected demographic! 🙂