Awkward Meals: Dangerous Candy

Back in 2001, my cousin ruptured a spinal disc when she reached down to pick up a piece of dropped candy. Here's an excerpt from some mail I sent her:

Yipe. I hope that your surgery and recovery go smoothly and quickly. All those years that my mom told me that candy was bad for me, and did I listen? No.

Actually, I've had some candy-like substances lately which nearly caused me injury. I tried a chewing gum called "Black black". It tasted terrible. It was as if someone decided what would happen if you extrapolated the taste of menthol beyond the pain limit. According to the packaging, it contained caffeine. It also maybe contained nicotine. I can't be sure--it was Japanese gum, with Japanese packaging, and I might have mis-read something else as "nicotine".

[2003 Update: According to a catalog page, Black Black doesn't contain nicotine. They say "nikochin san amido" is Japanese for niacinamide. Whew! (Of course, this still begs the question--why did this gum make my face itch?)]

Just yesterday, I tried another Japanese candy. This one featured Vitamin C and collagen. (Again, I'm not sure about the "collagen." Maybe they were saying it contained "Corrigan".) The center of this "candy", if that's the word I want, was something kind of gummy but mostly very very hard. I couldn't tell whether or not I was supposed to chew on it. The rest of the candy was very chewable. It was as if there were a gummi bear that had somehow started to go stale from the inside out. I think I nearly lost a tooth on that one.

Okay, so, lessons learned: avoid Black black, C-kea (the collagen candy was called C-kea), and floor candy. I hope you feel better soon.

Cheesy

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