Candy

I always buy Halloween candy that I like, especially little Butterfingers, Snickers, and Hershey's minis. This year I also mixed in some peppermint kisses that are made of that waxy not-even-chocolate white stuff with chips of peppermint. I think they were technically early Christmas candy.

To my surprise, several food writers are taking this stuff seriously. Or sort of seriously: examining the calorie content and comparing nutrition in peanut M&Ms to the nutrition facts about other candy that didn't have that nice peanut protein (here and here). Or describing the taste of the candy with words like "floral" or "toasty, nutty notes." In Our taste test of fine and foul Halloween candies, the author, normally a super-serious food writer at Salon.com, vacillates in just how serious he's taking the taste test.

I'm going to give a couple pieces of candy each to several hundred kids dressed up in costumes, whose mothers might let them eat it -- or whose mothers might eat it for them. The next block over from us will be closed to car traffic to encourage and protect the trick-or-treaters. This will probably cause even more than the usual hundreds to show up here. I'll be glad to see them. I do not think that the nutritional value of one or another kind of candy is at issue. And if I gave them little boxes of raisins, it would seem mean-spirited. Also, I would miss my minimum annual requirement of Butterfinger bars.