Cow Tales Logo

History: Goetze Candy Company introduced Cow Tales in 1984. Cow Tales are a more ‘fun’ version of Goetze best-selling Caramel Creams. Goetze Candy Company began production in 1895 in Baltimore, MD as the Baltimore Chewing Gum Company and the first Caramel Creams were introduced in 1918.

Facts:

• Cow Tales were nominated for ‘Product of the Year’ in 1993
• Cow Tales used to come in Banana and Peanut Butter Flavors
• Cow Tales are completely nut-free
• Caramel Creams are sometimes called ‘Bull’s Eyes,’ is that the origin of Cow Tales?

Competition: There are few products available that can directly compete with Cow Tales or their parents, Caramel Creams.

Nutritional Information:

• Net Weight: 28g
• Calories: 110
• Total Fat: 3g
• Sugar: 11g

Sources:

• Goetze’s Candy Official Website
• Goetze’s Candy Wikipedia Page

Taste Test:

Purchased for 25¢ in South Carolina.

• StrawberriCream:

Taster 1 (me): ‘Tasty, but it is hard to separate the original taste from the hardness.’*
Taster 2 (roommate): ‘It tastes like a strawberry shortcake ice cream bar. It tastes like its old. It would have been good if it was soft.’

• Caramel Apple:

Taster 1: ‘The filling is too cinnamon-y.’
Taster 2: ‘Tastes like a caramel apple. More like the original, except with jelly filling’

• Chocolate

Taster 1: ‘Smokey, dark chocolate flavor. Intense’
Taster 2: ‘Good flavor but I am not that much of a chocolate person. The inside is good, the outside tastes kind of like tree bark.’

*Tester 2 complained of a sore jaw afterwards.

In trying to upload an image to be the logo for my fantasy football team this year (and this post is going to contain that logo), I thought of that dusty old online filing cabinet that is dime.oftheweek. Yet after reading through all of the posts (very easy to do, amiright?), I realized that at one time, I had actually been publishing useful, or at least mildly interesting, thoughts and recommendations.

Perhaps this is what happens when you read an old diary and take it up again. And I am sure that this post will create some of the same hope in you, dear reader, that I labeled so disappointing in this inaugural version of my dime store thoughts. Regardless, as I begin many new stages in my life, I would love for all of you to come along for ride (including myself). Please leave encouragement in the comments section.

An homage to my neighborhood Shake Shack

An homage to Community's Darkest Timeline

Playoff Face/Off

Ready to Ride for the Barborassas!

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Round Up:

Law & Order Title Card

Law & Order is one of the longest running shows on television.  It is currently in its 19th season airing Wednesday nights at 10pm on NBC.  However, its place in the dime store cannon has been secured through its syndication on TNT, as well as its ability to sprout spin-offs like Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.  Law & Order, the original, contains all the features of a great dime store novel, translated to the small screen.  It has a formula, so finely honed that a fan of the show can know the future in the first ten minutes.  It has loveable characters, like D.A. Jack McCoy and Det. Lenny Briscoe.  All in all, not a bad way to spend a spare hour (as long as your mate (life- or room-) is willing to watch).

Recommendation Level:

Five Stars (out of Five).  If you like drama, mystery and murder, this show should appeal to you.  If you are a fan of dime store novels and their ability to draw you in, this show is your chance to get your hit from TV instead of a book.

Clips:

Season One Titles

Jack McCoy, at his best

(Still learning how to embed files in a player… MTC or BP, I am looking at you for some help!)

Sources:

Law & Order’s Wikipedia Page

Law & Order’s Imdb.com Page

Law & Order’s official website

Law & Order’s TNT Page

The original Airheads logo

History: Airheads were created in 1986 by Van Melle Inc, a Dutch candy company that produces other luminaries like Mentos and Fruitella.  After a merger in 2001, Van Melle became Perfitti Van Melle, the sixth largest candy manufacturer in the world.  Airheads and their accompanying product lines are produced in Erlanger, Kentucky.

Facts:

• Nearly 14 billion Airheads have been sold since 1986.
• There are six flavors of Airheads: Green Apple, Strawberry, Cherry, Watermelon, Blue Raspberry and White Mystery.
• Perfitti Van Melle refuses to identify White Mystery, but I contend it is its own flavor all by itself.  Other theories of mine are that they simply leave out the dye from the other flavors, making it a veritable candy Russian Roulette while still others think it is a blend of all the flavors.
• Airheads is the official ‘non-chocolate candy’ of US Youth Soccer.

Competition: As a taffy-like substance, Airheads comeptition naturally other taffies.  An obvious contender would be Laffy Taffy, another individually packaged, cheaply priced taffy.  Perhaps a less obvious competitor is Now and Later, a candy sold in chews (like Starburts) but with a very similar intense flavor to AIrheads.

Nutritional Information

• Net Weight: .55 oz
• Calories: 60
• Total Fat: 1g
• Sugar: 9g

Sources:

• Airheads official website
• Airheads wikipedia page
• Perfitti Van Melle history

Most Agathas include a mysterious murder and a cluster of suspects for the reader to choose from.  Like all good formulas, every Agatha is different enough to tantalize the brain buds.  Another important factor of is that Christie was British as they come (appealing to the Anglophile* in all of us).  Christie also created two of the more memorable detectives in mystey fiction, Miss Jane Marple and Monsuir Hercule Poirot.  Both are eccentrics who are easy to love.  Still, the best part of every Agatha is the solution.

Of course, the attentive reader has an opportunity to solve the crimes.  All the characters are gathered.  All of the evidence has been presented.  Usually, I am so excited that I do not even stop to figure out the cases, but when I do, I have noticed some simple trends.  The guilty always seem to be easily dismissed and sufficiently minor to be the obvious choice, and yet, I have never solved a mystery.  Some of my favorites include The ABC Murders, Murder on the Orient Express, And Then There Were None, and At Bertram’s Hotel.  Expect features on these and others in the near future.

* Correction:  This post originally said ‘appeals to the anglophobe in all of us’

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What is honor (or moral behavior or honesty or the right thing)?  Lately, honor has been in the news.  Some of President Obama’s nominees for Cabinet positions have been under fire because of a lack of honor in paying their taxes.  Michael Phelps has made the news because he was taking a nice hit off of a bong.  In my personal life, I have been discussing with my dad whether downloading media for free is illegal.

All of these events hinge on a definition of honor.  What exactly is honor?  Is it doing the morally correct thing or doing the legally correct thing?  Who defines honor?  Is it a general consensus or a personal choice?  What are the consequences for dishonorable behavior?  Should it be retribution or is the damage to reputation sufficient?

These are tough questions to answer.  For most people, it is hard to develop a strong personal definition of honor.  There are always ways to get around the spirit of something while meeting its letter.  This kind of attitude leads to people skimping on their taxes (Tom Daschle).  For others, laws seem arbitrary and impersonal, so desire is more important than legality (Michael Phelps).  And for some people, the risk of consequences is minimal (illegal downloaders).

Personally, I did not develop a sense of honor until I went to college.  I no longer had my parents to motivate me so I looked at my schoolwork as a representation of myself.  If professors thought that I was willing to cheat, I was offended (as any personal affront usually offends me, regardless of whether it impugns my skills at the ultimate or Halo or my deep knowledge of NBA basketball, or yes, my honesty).  However, I broke many a law pertaining to alcohol because I felt like they were imposed on disenfranchised youth by fascist, fear-mongering adults (see Sparks).  Anyway, my personal honor code is defined by my idea that morality and not legality takes precedence, which leads to strong ideals about cheating or stealing but weak feelings towards personal choices like weed or alcohol.  Please, dear reader, share your own honor code in the comments.

Link:

UNC Chapel Hill’s Honor Code

Skor Logo

History: Hershey’s created Skor in 1983 to compete with the Heath bar.  In 1996, Hershey’s bought the company that made Heath bars.  Now they are made in the same factory (check out the bibliography for a comparision of the two).

Facts:

• The crown on the wrapper is from the Swedish national emblem, the Tre Kroner (Three Crowns), seen on the Swedish coat of arms.
• Skor is actually the Swedish word for ’shoes.’
• A Skor bar can be used to sweeten many a holiday recipe.  One good example is chocolate trifle

Competition: The most similar bars would naturally be other toffee candy bars.  Both the Heath bar and the Daim bar are similar.

Nutritional Information:

• Skor’a official website

• Skor vs. Heath

This book is one in Louis L’Amour’s series about the Sackett family.  It was one of my favorites as a kid.  It chronicles the story of William Tell Sackett and his revenge on his wife’s murderers.  The Sackett Brand follows the pattern of many of L’Amour’s stories (which I will not ruin for you here).  Needless to say, it is sweet!

Recommendation Level:

Five Stars (out of five), one of my favorite ‘Louis’ ever.

Excerpt:

It was still cold … bitter cold.  I tried not to think of that, but just kept inching along.  Sometimes I pulled myself along by grasping branches or clutching at cracks in the rock.  Cold as it was, I started to sweat, and that scared me.  If that sweat froze, the heat in my body would be used up fighting its cold and I’d die.

Once I broke a hole in the ice and drank, but most of the time I just kept moving because I’d never learned how to quit.  I was just a big raw-boned cowboy with big shoulders and big hands who was never much account except for hard work and fighting.  Back in the Tennessee hills they used to say my feet were too big for dancing and I hadn’t any ear for music; but along about fighting time I’d be there - fist, gun, or bowie knife.  All of us Sacketts were pretty much on the shoot.

p. 10, The Sackett Brand, Louis L’Amour

Purchase:

Cover, Bantam Books, 1965