Candy Trouble

All of those medical/financial/educational forms we all fill out have that sometimes troublesome section where we are to check a box in front of our race (though usually told we may select "choose not to say,") and then list

African-American, Asian, Caucasian/White, American Indian, Other

as our choices. Some of them go a bit farther and include

Samoan, Native Hawaiian, Korean, Asian Indian, Korean, Vietnamese.

I was dumping the bags of Halloween candy Scooter and Eryn bought last week, and quickly saw that it was not going to fit into the one big bowl we typically use. (I bought a black cauldron a few years ago, but I don't know where it is.) I found a second bowl and decided for some maniacal reason to put chocolate-y things in one bowl and "Other" in the - well, other bowl. It was then that I spotted the problem.



















First: Tootsie Rolls. Some people will immediately proclaim that they belong with the chocolate. But they don't really taste like chocolate! They taste like Tootsie Roll chocolate. When in the grips of a Chocolate Fit, a Tootsie Roll (or indeed a handful of Tootsie Rolls) might take the edge off it, but certainly does not satisfy it. So where do they go - Chocolate or Other? And don't even get me started on the chocolate-flavored Tootsie Pops.

If you look closely at the Tootsie Roll package, it lists cocoa among its ingredients. Into the Chocolate bowl they went. The Tootsie Pops I decided belonged with their cherry, orange and root beer cousins in Other.

Now I wonder if I'm a bigot.