Kids Smoking Smarties?! That's Some Crazy Shizz!

A while back I wrote several entries about candy cigarettes, one of the staples of my childhood growing up in the '70s. Such a shocking candy! How could candy makers allow such a thing to exist? Did the candy versions promote smoking the real stuff? Scientific studies concluded that yes, they did glamorize smoking and therefore were evil.

Well my friends, leave it to the new generation to find something even more horrifying, more anarchist than candy cigarettes. Brace yourself: The Kids are "smoking" Smarties!

When I heard about this on a teaser for tonight's news, my first thought was that kids were crushing up Smarties and stuffing the powder into a pipe (or bowl or bong) and lighting up. Well, it's not *quite* so naughty. Apparently this is how it works: you take a roll of Smarties, crush them up in the package, inhale the dust and then blow it out your mouth and it looks like you're smoking. There's a fantastic how-to video here by 14-year-old Titus Williams (although he admittedly used Sassy Sours, a simliar product made by Copper Kettle Inc., which he says crush more easily).

Oh how I wish I was the reporter who broke this story. What a riot. Such a serious topic-- talking to the child "users," consulting doctors, consoling heart-broken parents. I've got to say, this has me laughing my Smartie Pants off. This article in the Wall St. Journal by Dionne Searcey is actually a really good piece of reporting. To wit:

"Last month, Mark Shikowitz, an ear, nose and throat doctor at
Schneider Children's Hospital in New Hyde Park, N.Y., treated a boy about 9
years old who complained his nose was burning because of a Smarties incident.
(His parents brought in a Smarties wrapper but weren't sure how he'd ingested
them.) Dr. Shikowitz determined that part of a Smarties must have lodged in the
boy's nose until it dissolved. The child wasn't harmed."

AND:

"Oren Friedman, a Mayo Clinic nose specialist, cautioned that frequent use could
lead to infections or even worse, albeit rare, conditions, such as maggots that
feed on sugary dust wedged inside the nose."

Now that's something to get freaked out about.
So Yumsters, have any of you ever tried to smoke candy? Maybe snorted Pixy Sticks? Here's your chance to dish the dirt.

"Pretty Sneaky, Sis!"

What you are looking at is a wee set of Connect Four games (or, in this case, Connect Three) that use Smarties as playing pieces.

So cool.

It's school vacation week, which means I get to visit with all my teacher friends that I never get to see any other time. So today the Sugar Baby and I headed up to God's country to see my friend Eric* and his two little cutie-pie daughters. There on the table was one of these little games (without the pieces) and I said, "Oh how cute! Are these for dolls?" and this led to a discussion of how they were from goodie bags and you can't escape the goodie bag trend lest you be labeled the most evil parents on earth. Then he commented how these were useless because there weren't any pieces. That is, until I noticed the roll of Smarties sitting next to it. Ah ha! Suddenly these little games went from cute to totally fabulous. If the girls hadn't been right there, I might've taken one for my collection.

(*Check out his soon-to-be famous blog on family games: www.beyondcandyland.wordpress.com.)

Smartie Pants

As I mentioned in a previous post, I bought a bag of "Smarties Parties" because they contained not only regular Smarties, but some other fancy types as well. The tropical taste really similar to the regular. So similar, in fact, that I wouldn't be able to tell the difference if you mixed them all together. The X-treme Sour were really good, just what you'd imagine: sour Smarties. The candy money was fun. They're bigger in size and not as chalky. But the real surprise was the Smarties Bubble Gum. I thought they were bubble gum-flavored candy, but no, they're actually gum! And they look just like Smarties! Fun! I really got a kick out of those. I don't know if they sell these individually or just in the mixed packages. I suppose I could check it out at their website, even though it totally creeps me out.
(Editor's note: I did go to the creepy website, and they do sell Smarties Bubble Gum on its own.)

Horn o' Plenty

Here's that groovy cone o' mixed goodies I got at the Dutch candy store. Isn't it cool? It's filled with gumdrops, little compressed sugar smiley faces, sugary jelly cubes and chocolate nonpareils. I plucked out a few of the gumdrops and started my "G is for Gumdrops" painting yesterday.

In other news, I had to go back to the dreaded Christmas Tree Shoppe today. Now, here's the thing: I have a phobia against buying candy (or anything edible for that matter) from non-food stores. So while I sometimes spy interesting things at say, Marshalls or TJ Maxx or the dollar store, I just can't bring myself to buy them. I envision the edible stuff stored in a big warehouse next to boxes of Made-in-China-lead-paint knick knacks and I freak out. But I actually bought a bag of "Smarties Parties" today. They had lots and lots of candy for Halloween, so I hedged my bets and figured that this stuff must be A) somewhat fresh and B) insulated from the lead paint by all the other candy. I've never seen anything beside regular Smarties before, so it was pretty exciting. In addition to the regular, there are:

Candy Money

Bubble Gum Smarties

X-Treme Sour Smarties

Tropical Flavor Smarties

I'll have to find some kids to taste test these and naturally, I'll use these for my "S is for Smarties" painting.

(Editor's Note: After writing the above entry, I decided to check out the Smarties website. Now, I tend to think of Smarties as pretty high up there in the lexicon of candy. I mean, it's not Hershey's or Nestles, but still, Smarties have been around forever and everyone knows them. So why, I'm curious to know, is their website so bizarre? It's some the strangest copy writing I've ever seen. It reads like a non-English speaking foreigner wrote it. "Candy it's sweet man!" "How will you know when you're eating gross candy?" Wow. I'm speechless.)

Goodie bag!

Yesterday I had my family over to celebrate Henri's first birthday. (Holy cow, I can't believe it's been a year!)

I made cupcakes using the Magnolia Bakery recipe (although, I must admit, they weren't that great. The cake was a little dry and the frosting a little too sugary, but they were still good.) At the last minute, I decided to make goodie bags because the party store had such good candy and I figured I might as well start a tradition of having kick-butt candy at the H-man's birthday. So here's the rundown of the goods: Mike & Ike's, Hot Tamales, Tootsie Roll Midgies, wax vampire teeth, giant Smarties, Sugar Daddy and a whistle pop.

Props to my sister and her husband for doing the food styling.