Tootsie Roll

It's the hump of the week, as they say, Wednesday, the little hill in the middle of a work week that many people just have to get through in order to make it to Friday. In my last part time job, Wednesday was my day off, so I had a little valley mid-week, in which to loll around and handle chores, errands, and medical appointments.

In my blog, Wednesday often became a similar catch-all or hodge podge.  And I do hope it mostly has a humorous or fun feel henceforth. Or shall I say humpforth? (This is why you don't want me to do stand up.)

But the Libyan people are on my mind, their protests not going so well as those of the Egyptian people. And the people of Christchurch, New Zealand, their daily lives toppled by an earthquake.  All over the world everyday, someone is struggling with some awful reality. It makes me all the more grateful for my little life, and its littler humps.

And for the Tootsie Roll.  I read about it today in Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac as "America's first individually wrapped penny candy," as of today in 1896, a chocolate candy almost anybody could afford (not just rich people). Now it's true, then, that the Tootsie Roll may have started us on our way toward addictions to high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, but we don't want to think about that right now.  Nor how it gets stuck in our teeth, or to our braces or dental work.

In fact, I gave 4 little Tootsie Rolls away the other day, to a friend with two young children, as I know they will handle Tootsie Rolls much better than I do now.

But let me turn my mind to Tootsie Pops. Fond memories of childhood, yes, all the flavors of hard candy wrapped around a Tootsie Roll center.  I don't eat those anymore, either.

No, what I'm pondering is amaretto and orange juice, a holiday beverage mixed by my brother-in-law that, to me, tastes exactly like an orange Tootsie Pop.  A semi-healthy (Vitamin C) drink to get you through the hump of the week.