Bond Bons

When my parents lived in LA, my Mom bought us fun candy and gum from a Japanese community there. Some of the candy is really entertaining, such as the grape flavored rings that double as whistles, and some of it's pretty tasty. The gum, not so good, although packaged fashionably and labeled "Watering Kissmint." Oooh.

The really fun part is that all of the candy, aside from the Watering Kissmint of course, is labeled in Japanese, so you have no idea what is inside the box until you open it. And, once you do, you still may have no idea what you're about to put in your mouth (warning to those with strange, severe allergies). Just this week Mom uncovered a leftover stash from Cali and I opened a box with something purple inside, assumed it was candy; turned out to be gum.

All of the Japanese candy reminds me of an American candy a friend and I used in a "focus session" for MLK Day in college: Diversity Beans (http://www.diversitybeans.com/history.html). Diversity Beans are jelly beans whose flavors don't match their colors, i.e. you can pop a yellow jelly bean in your mouth and be surprised by the taste of cherry. All is well until you pop in a red one and discover it's licorice flavored. Personally, I looove black jelly beans, so I ended up eating a lot of the remains of half-eaten jelly beans, spit out by others, as we prepared for our focus session. We used the beans as an exercise to teach middle school students about stereotypes, judging a book by its cover, a person by his skin color (this is actually the point behind the creation of D-Beans). Pretty awesome tool, definitely check them out if you have a seminar/get together/somethin' rather coming up.

As for the Japanese candy, there are two items from Mom's latest stash that I am saving for Riley Francis, but I am bristling with curiosity concerning their contents. Riley, come home now so we can crack these suckers open! One of the boxes has Super Mario characters on it, and the other involves Pokemon. I can see a piece of brown plastic through the Super Mario packaging, so I'm hoping it has to do with Donkey Kong. Some of the mysterious packages have some English words on them, and I've just discovered in the time that I've sat down to type this that these say "Chocolate" and "FIZZY CANDY" on them. Riley, let's just say if you're not home in 48 hours you might not have the opportunity to open these with me. I lost a considerable amount of will power upon reading "FIZZY CANDY."

Do you guys love that I use my blog to communicate with my brother, instead of just privately emailing or calling him?

Riley and I seem to have many adventures involving candy, now that I think about it. A few years ago Santa Claus brought Riley some Harry Potter Bertie Bott's jelly beans, including flavors such as vomit, dirt, and sardines. Riley decided he would pick out only the good flavors, until his big sister stepped up to her duty as educator of minors and ate each disgusting flavor alongside him until we had conquered the entire package. P.S. the vomit beans sincerely taste exactly like vomit.

Our big brother Kelly used to take those big variety packs of Jelly Bellys and play a "fun game" called Guess the Flavor. We would close our eyes and he would give us a jelly bean and we had to guess the flavor. At first he was nice, of course, giving us cherry, pear, cinnamon, so we would trust him. Then he gave us buttered popcorn, or grape mixed with cappuccino. When my guy friends today try to understand why they can never get away with pulling my leg, it's because of antics like this. Years of practice, putting up with immature males. Strength is the golden reward. Strength and cunning. Very few people have been able to successfully tickle, sneak up on, trip, or scare me in recent years--three brothers pulling those tricks for 24 years eventually elicit little more than a yawn over time.

Okay, Riley, get on home so we can open up these boxes and beat Donkey Kong for the twentieth time. And eat grilled cheese sandwiches, pet the kitty, watch Spice World, etc. As for the rest of you, go to the grocery store and find the strangest candy you can get your hands on. Then find your nearest sibling and get to bonding. Might I suggest a Craig Ferguson youtube video to get you started...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAqrJYWeG34&feature=channel