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A Super Necessary And All Important Survey Question


Mr. Chatywin et al.

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Yeah the existence of candy corn has always confused me.  Even as a kid I nor any of my friends could stand the things.  Like why even bother making this with all the other options for candy?  My reaction to anyone eating candy corn would be analogous to Quagmire's reaction to Mounds bars:

Anyway, timely topic - just got my annual binge of marked down candy from the grocery store today.  I try not to eat candy the rest of the year, but I always find the liquidation sales an irresistible excuse to splurge.  Got me some Reese's (cups not pieces you philistine), Snickers, and my brother got Sour Patch Kids.  Tis the season to get fat!

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18 minutes ago, HelenaExMachina said:

Just wait, Brexit’s going to flood our markets with chlorinated candy corn, its going to be great!

 

@Tywin et al. Halloween is observed here buts its not really a big deal for most people over here. As with all things some people go all out but for the most part it kind of just passes by. Probably the most telling point on this is that supermarkets put in their christmas seasonal aisles around the beginning of September with maybe a shelf or two given over to Halloween.

 

Even when i was younger and there were loads of young kids on the street we rarely got more than one or two trick or treaters.

 

eta: you greedy Muricans just need an excuse for a holiday before Christmas don’t you. And in two Capitalist style, you  took two!

Thanks. I guess I assumed it was more of a big deal in at least the UK. :dunno:

Also, us Jews are really running up the score when it comes to holidays. :P

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8 minutes ago, DMC said:

Yeah the existence of candy corn has always confused me.  Even as a kid I nor any of my friends could stand the things.  Like why even bother making this with all the other options for candy?  My reaction to anyone eating candy corn would be analogous to Quagmire's reaction to Mounds bars:

Anyway, timely topic - just got my annual binge of marked down candy from the grocery store today.  I try not to eat candy the rest of the year, but I always find the liquidation sales an irresistible excuse to splurge.  Got me some Reese's (cups not pieces you philistine), Snickers, and my brother got Sour Patch Kids.  Tis the season to get fat!

Yeah, same thoughts. Like why bother with them when the almighty peanut butter cup sits next to it? 

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1 minute ago, Liffguard said:

I also have no idea what a mounds bar is. Some quick googling tells me it's basically the same thing as a bounty?

They're trash. Also, Google gave me this:

Quote

10 WORST HALLOWEEN CANDIES

  1. CANDY CORN

  1. CIRCUS PEANUTS

  1. PEANUT BUTTER KISSES

  1. WAX COLA BOTTLES

  1. NECCO WAFERS

  1. TOOTSIE ROLLS

  1. SMARTIES

  1. LICORICE

  1. GOOD & PLENTY

  1. BIT-O-HONEY

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/602321/best-and-worst-halloween-candies

Vindication!!! All you people who answered positively are savages!!!

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4 minutes ago, Liffguard said:

Some quick googling tells me it's basically the same thing as a bounty?

Yes, looks like it.  I'd never heard of a bounty, but some quick googling does seem to confirm it's basically the same as mounds.  Who knew candy would be the cause of such cultural confusion between Brits and Americans?

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56 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Now I’m wondering if I’ve had  a giant blind spot this whole time. Do any Western European countries celebrate Halloween, or something akin to it?

The whole 'going around in costumes' thing originally comes from a Scottish Halloween tradition called guising. America then added 'trick or treating' and lots of chocolates which was then been exported back to Britain, although I don't think it's anywhere near as big here as in the US. I don't know whether it's done much in other European countries.

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The proper answer is that candy corn is both (i) and (k).

I once loved it though I haven't had any in years.  I bet I would still like it but couldn't eat as much.  I also believe trolls would like it.  I also like when they light up the Empire State Building like a giant piece of candy corn. 

That list is absurd.  There are people who don't like Smarties?  Tootsie Rolls better than...whatever they were better than besides black licorice? 

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11 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

Thanks. I guess I assumed it was more of a big deal in at least the UK. :dunno:

It is. I mean, maybe it's just a Scottish thing but I don't recognise what Helena is saying: the supermarkets were full of Halloween stuff for weeks (admittedly the Christmas stuff replaced it by 7am on the 1st November), Halloween is one of the biggest nights of the year for bars and clubs around here, and usually we get a load of kids guising. 

Anyway, candy corn is trash. 

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Yeah, i hadn’t thought there would be a difference between England and Scotland but I also remember Halloween being a fairly big deal in Scotland when I was growing up in the late eighties/early nineties. But maybe it depends whereabouts you lived. Even at my parents house, which is not on a kid friendly street, we had a lot of guisers.  When I went to my friends on housing estates, it was like a street party.

We called them guisers, sometimes trick-or-treaters, and you actually had to do something, like a party trick, or tell a joke to get your candy.  Usually you’d be invited in to the living area of the house too, not just standing on the doorstep.

Now it seems like Halloween’s moved on to a more adult thing of partying in elaborate costumes.

Where I live now, in Luxembourg, not a big deal. We’ve had the same family, or group of kids, come to our door, the last couple of years and that’s all. They wear pretty crappy costumes (like a mask plus street clothes) and follow the American tradition of just holding open a big sack so we can toss the candy in there.

By the way, I’m sure you can get candy corn in Britain, maybe not in corn kernel shape, but it’s basically just the flavourless waxy ballast you can get in pick ‘n mix, sometimes have stuff like that in Haribo packets too.

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13 hours ago, ljkeane said:

I think Bonfire Night was traditionally the bigger thing in the UK but that does seem to be changing.

Bonfire night effectively was Halloweeen, just a few days later - Halloween, or rather Samhainn, the celtic new year, was celebrated by lighting bonfires, whilst loud noises (fireworks) would scare away evil spirits that were thought to be around at the turning of the year.   Effigies would be burned on the fire.  And folk would eat, drink and play games.    

In later times, some kids would use the old beliefs in evil spirits being abroad at the old new year as an excuse to make mischief (they could blame the damage on ghosts and goblins) and from that, ultimately, we get the modern American halloween.

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36 minutes ago, Essan said:

Bonfire night effectively was Halloweeen, just a few days later - Halloween, or rather Samhainn, the celtic new year, was celebrated by lighting bonfires, whilst loud noises (fireworks) would scare away evil spirits that were thought to be around at the turning of the year.   Effigies would be burned on the fire.  And folk would eat, drink and play games.    

In later times, some kids would use the old beliefs in evil spirits being abroad at the old new year as an excuse to make mischief (they could blame the damage on ghosts and goblins) and from that, ultimately, we get the modern American halloween.

I have a few friends who still celebrate Samhainn explicitly. I don't know if this is a result of a continuous unbroken legacy or a revival of a previously dead tradition, but either way it's pretty interesting. My area (Devon) no longer has a living Celtic tradition but we're right by Cornwall, which does.

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I have lived most of my life in a post-stamp-sized post-socialist Eurocommie country, never seen or heard of this type of candy, so (m).

15 hours ago, williamjm said:

The whole 'going around in costumes' thing originally comes from a Scottish Halloween tradition called guising. America then added 'trick or treating' and lots of chocolates which was then been exported back to Britain, although I don't think it's anywhere near as big here as in the US. I don't know whether it's done much in other European countries.

In Slovenia, there was/is still a similar tradition of children dressing up and going around knocking on doors, only they do it on Carnival, not Halloween. It stems from the belief that loud noises (loud bells, for example, were part of some traditional masks) would scare away the winter.

When I was a child, I was always weirded out by American movies showing children wearing masks and going trick-or-treating on Halloween, instead of in February/March, for Carnival.

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16 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

They're trash. Also, Google gave me this:

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/602321/best-and-worst-halloween-candies

Vindication!!! All you people who answered positively are savages!!!

As to the original poll question I'll go with (i) good.  I like them and will eat them if offered, but never went out of my way to buy them.

But the Google poll is obviously flawed by including Tootsie Rolls anywhere in a worst candy list.

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