When I was in college, I had to have my wisdom teeth removed. Besides the fact that this seemed somewhat ironic, I mean here I was paying all this money to go to school and get smart, and then at the same time they were ripping my wisdom teeth right out . . . what I recall about my oral surgery is how I prepared for the event.
I had been told that I wasn’t allowed to have anything to eat for a set amount of hours before the surgery. Since my surgery was in the morning, this meant going without breakfast, which is not something I am normally capable of. I can skip any other meal of the day, but don’t make me skip breakfast. Knowing that I was going to have to go without breakfast, and that the next week or so would be spent eating things like apple sauce, I stayed up late the night before my surgery and ate a strawberry Charleston Chew bar.
I am telling you this because it was this memory that rose unbidden to my consciousness as I was reading Candyfreak: A journey into the chocolate underbelly of America by Steve Almond. I enjoy candy bars and probably have a bit of candyfreakdom in me, but Steve Almond has me beat. His candy bar consumption far surpasses mine and his obsession is something far beyond my own cravings, aroused by reading his hilarious and surprisingly informative book about America’s candy bar industry. That said I am more than a bit tempted to learn that I can buy an entire box of strawberry Charleston Chew bars at Amazon.
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