chocolate – Facts, Fictions & Fantasies

Bits and Pieces — September 27, 2023

September 27, 2023September 26, 2023Fandango10 Comments

Just a few bits and pieces that I thought I might share with you today.

America’s Pot of Gold

Americans spent some $30 billion on legal marijuana last year. By comparison, $28 billion was spent on craft beer, $20 billion on chocolate, and $7 billion on ice cream.

And if you add chocolate and ice cream to what was spent on marijuana, Americans spent $57 billion getting high and pigging out on chocolate and ice cream!

I want to point out that Marijuana is fully legalized for recreational use in 20 states plus Washington, DC. But in 18 states it’s only allowed for medical use, and it remains illegal in 12 states.

Imagine the spend on cannabis if it were fully legalized in all states.

Breaking New Records

By the end of August, the U.S. had recorded its 500th mass shooting of the year. Mass shootings are defined by most agencies as four or more persons shot in one incident, at one location, at roughly the same time. Some trackers exclude the perpetrators in those numbers. According to Axios, as of September 24, the number of mass shootings was 511. Until 2020, the country had never recorded 500 mass shootings in a year.

Seems that the National Rifle Association (NRA) and American gun manufactures are striving to break 2021’s record of 691 mass shooting in America.

Gun-wielding Robots

The NRA used to say that guns don’t kill people; people kill people. Well that is so 20th century. Now we have to add robots to the list of things, other than hubs, of course, that kill people.

But don’t worry. Your lawmakers are all over this. In fact, Massachusetts may become the first state to regulate gun-wielding robots. A proposed bill from state representative Lindsay Sabadosa and state senator Michael Moore, both Democrats, would ban the sale and use of armed robots and drones, with exemptions for the military and law enforcement. “Things are really changing,” said Sabadosa. “It was important to get something on the books as soon as possible.”

Photo credit: Chris Moore (AP)

Share Your World — 12/5/2022

December 5, 2022December 4, 2022Fandango14 Comments

Di, at Pensitivity101, is our host for Share Your World each week. Here are her questions for this week.

1. Do you have a favorite outfit you like to wear?

No. I pretty much dress the same way every day: jeans and (in the cooler months) a sweatshirt.

2. What is the worst thing you were forced to wear as a child (school uniforms aside) ?

I honestly don’t remember being forced to wear anything in particular when I was a kid.

3. Do you have a sweet tooth, and if so, are you a chewer, cruncher, or sucker?

I’m not sure I would say that I have a sweet tooth per se, but depending upon what sweet treat I was eating, I could be chewing, crunching, and/or sucking. Let’s take a Tootsie Pop, for example.

I would suck on the hard candy on outside of the Tootsie Pop for a few minutes before I’d get tired of waiting to get to the chocolate-flavored chewy Tootsie Roll candy hidden on the inside of the lollipop, so I would crunch the remainder of the hard candy outer shell with my teeth until I reached the Tootsie Roll candy inside, which I would chew.

4. Do you think you could eat your weight in chocolate?

Maybe over an entire lifetime I will have consumed my weight in chocolate, but not at one sitting, which is what I assume the question implies.

Share Your World — 11/14/2022

November 14, 2022November 22, 2022Fandango17 Comments

Di, at Pensitivity101, is our host for Share Your World each week. Here are her questions for this week.

1. Does the weather affect your mood?

Only if I have plans that will be affected (one way or the other) by the weather.

2. If a stranger smiles at you or says ‘good morning’ when they pass you in the street, do you return it?

I will typically return the smile or nod my head, but rarely speak.

3. If you had a choice of just one of these things to eat, what would it be and why?
Chocolate, a sweet pastry, a plate of chips/fries (this is not a forever choice, just one instance).

Depends what else, if anything I’m having. If I’m having a sandwich or a burger, I’d choose chips/fries. But if it’s a dessert following a meal, I’d go with a sweet pastry. And if it’s just a quick snack on the run, probably a Snickers bar.

4. If you could go back to when you were a specific age, what would that be? Why?

I’d probably go back to when I was 22 and had just graduated from college. That was the age at which I started my real life, and didn’t realize the ramifications of some of the decisions I made at the time. Of course, I wouldn’t necessarily want to go back to that age unless I would know then what I know now.

Gratitude:

I was very grateful to have had some very specials friends as houseguests this past week. And now I’m grateful that they have left and I can get back to my regular routines.

Hello/Goodbye hands from Klaus Hargreeves at Esty.

Fandango’s Provocative Question #171

June 29, 2022June 28, 2022Fandango41 Comments

Welcome once again to Fandango’s Provocative Question. Each week I will pose what I think is a provocative question for your consideration.

By provocative, I don’t mean a question that will cause annoyance or anger. Nor do I mean a question intended to arouse sexual desire or interest.

What I do mean is a question that is likely to get you to think, to be creative, and to provoke a response. Hopefully a positive response.

My provocative questions recently have been pretty heavy, so I thought I’d lighten things up a bit this week.

I read a post today from Ally Bean at The Spectacled Bean in which she posted the results from an informal survey in which she asked her readers to tell her their favorite ice cream flavors. The top three were vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry, which I thought was very boring. Seriously, people? Vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry?

So I thought I’d dig a little deeper and ask you, my blogging friends, to respond to this post by answering this question:

What is your favorite ice cream? Please list not only your favorite flavor, but also the brand that is your favorite. Please be specific.

Let me give you an example of what I’m looking for. I like Cookies and Cream ice cream (which flavor inexplicably didn’t make Ally Bean’s published list). And my preferred brand of Cookies and Cream ice cream is Breyers. But my very favorite flavor and brand of ice cream is Stephen Colbert’s Americone Dream from Ben & Jerry’s.

If you choose to participate, write a post with your response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments. But remember to check to confirm that your pingback or your link shows up in the comments.

SoCS — Opposites

December 18, 2021December 17, 2021FandangoLeave a comment

When Linda G. Hill asked us to use the word “opposites” or write about things that are opposites for this week’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt, I immediately thought about when we brought home two dogs who were litter mates years ago in the late Eighties.

These were both Labrador retriever puppies, about eight weeks old, when we brought them home. They weren’t pure bred Labs, but seemed to be mostly Lab. Little did we know how opposite to one another they would turn out to be.

One, the female, was a chocolate Lab. The male was a yellow Lab. He was sweet, affectionate, and mellow. She was high strung, ditsy, and nervous. He was a homebody who rarely seemed to want to leave the house or wander away from the yard. She was an escape artist and a runner. Any time anyone would open a door she would try to run out of the house and would literally run until she dropped.

He was motivated by food and treats and would respond whenever we shook the biscuit box. She seemed to be relatively uninterested in treats. He always wanted to be around us, close to us, and would either snuggle next to us when my wife and I were on the couch watching TV or would drape his 80 pound body across the two of us. She rarely sat near us and more often than not, would pace back and forth or go lie down in the corner when we watched TV.

Our dogs lived to the ripe old ages (for large breed dogs) of 14 (the male) and 15 (the female). They were opposites, but we loved them both and still miss them terribly.

My Little Red Wagon

April 30, 2019April 30, 2019Fandango15 Comments

CB21C71B-0FF1-4FA9-AC7E-B7A77EADA22A When I was a kid, about eight or nine, my ma used to regularly send me to the small grocery store about a half a mile from our tenement house. She’d give me a list of things to pick up, like bread, milk, juice, eggs, chocolate, etc.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t the strongest or most coordinated kid around, and I would incur the wrath of my ma on those occasions when I would accidentally drop the one of the heavy paper bags and break the eggs or the milk bottle.

My father and mother had gotten divorced a few years back, and she had taken up with the married lawyer who represented her in the divorce case. But since he was married, they had to meet on the down-low. So when I was at school, she would take my younger brother to the park in the afternoon once or twice a week and she and the lawyer would meet there. My ma would put my brother on the carousel and the lawyer would give the kid who ran the ride a few bucks to watch my brother for an hour while he and my ma engaged in some afternoon delight.

I managed to find out about their weekly assignations from my baby brother, who wasn’t as dumb as he looked. One night, the lawyer stopped by at our apartment and I confronted him. I told him I knew what he and my ma were up to and threatened to out them to my father. As lawyers are wont to do, he asked if I’d be interested in some negotiation.

I thought about each trip I took to the grocery store for my ma and the trouble I had balancing the heavy bags on my walk home. “I’ll keep my mouth shut,” I said, “if you buy me a little red wagon that I can use to haul the full bags of groceries from the store to home.”

The lawyer readily agreed and a few days later he delivered my shiny, new wagon.

Post script: I ratted him out anyway, and he was ultimately disbarred when it came out that he was screwing not only my ma, but many of his female divorce clients. Oh, his wife divorced him, too.

Written for Paula Light’s Three Things Challenge, where the three thing are “lawyer,” “carousel,” and “chocolate.” Also for these daily prompts: Ragtag Daily Prompt (bread), Your Daily Word Prompt (negotiation), Word of the Day Challenge (trip), and Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (wagon).

Friday Fictioneers — S’mores

February 8, 2019February 7, 2019Fandango19 Comments

C7D45327-3A10-49E4-9AE0-DD70D9138E49 “The campfire’s ready, kids,” their father said. “Grab a skewer. We’re gonna make s’mores!”

“What are s’mores?” his youngest asked.

“You’ll love them,” he answered. “You put a marshmallow on the end of the skewer and hold it over the fire until it’s golden brown. Then put it on top of a graham cracker and a piece of chocolate. You place the other graham cracker on top, like a sandwich.” Turning to his son, he said, “Jimmy, grab the bag with the marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers I asked you to put in the car.”

“Sorry, Dad. I forgot it.”

(100 words)

Written for this week’s Friday Fictioneers prompt from Rochelle Wisoff-Fields. Photo credit: Anshu Bhojnagarwala.