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Thursday, April 05, 2012

Sweet 'n Sour (Emphasis On The Sour)

Continuing on with “Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This Week”, it is time for this week's Thursday Confession. You're probably thinking that because of the theme, this week's confession will involve something sweet.

You would be wrong. Sort of.

I won't sugarcoat my feelings (despite the fact that this whole week is a spotlight on candy-themed pop culture references). My sweet tooth is probably one of the most overactive in the bunch. I reckon that I've eaten so many sweets over the course of my lifetime that I'm amazed at the fact that my sweet tooth hasn't completely rotted away from all the sugar.

I admit that in recent years, I have made serious attempts to keep my cravings for sweets under control, and ended up losing a lot of weight in the process. I still have those days where I really, really want a slice of chocolate cake or an Oreo Blizzard from Dairy Queen, and that's fine, so long as I don't indulge in them every day. My addiction to sweets is far from being as out of control as it was during my teen years, where I basically ate every sweet I could get my hands on to stop the bouts of depression that I endured during that time.

But, that's not my confession. If this were the first time that I was mentioning this, it probably would be, but regular readers would know that I've touched upon the subject of self-medication through food several times in this blog already. It doesn't come as much of a surprise.

And, besides, it doesn't quite fit with the theme for the week, which is supposed to be light-hearted.

Instead, my Thursday Confession for today happens to be related to the assumption that this confession will involve something sweet, and how that assumption is incorrect. Kind of.



THURSDAY CONFESSION #14: Some of my favourite sweet treats are really sour.

Yes, I thought I would dedicate this blog entry to some of my favourite “sour” treats. Various candies that make your lips pucker up the minute they enter your mouth, but turn sweeter and sweeter the longer you leave them inside.

(I see you snickering, and believe me, I understand. That last paragraph was incredibly difficult to write without making it sound “R” or even “X” rated.)

Some kids I went to school with didn't like sour candies at all, but I was always of the opinion that the more sour a candy was, the better. If the candy didn't make at least one of my eyes water, then it simply wasn't sour enough.

Now that I have made today's confession (which considering the subject matter of the topic at hand seems kind of bland in comparison to my previous confessions), I thought that I would dedicate the rest of this entry to open up discussion for sour candies.

I thought I'd make a list of some of the sour candies that I have enjoyed over the years (and still enjoy in moderation), and then I'd turn the floor over to all of you to ask all of you what your favourite sour candies are.

Here's my list, starting with the one sour candy that I will readily admit to being strongly addicted to.



1 – SOUR JUJUBES

Everyone knows what a jujube is right? It's like a gumdrop, only without the sugar sprinkles. Or, naked gumdrops, as I used to call them when I was six. When I was growing up, I loved jujubes, but I only liked certain flavours. Out of the five flavours that were offered for jujubes, I only liked the yellow and green ones. Orange were okay, but the red ones weren't that good. And as someone who has never been able to stomach the disgusting taste of black licorice, needless to say the black jujubes always ended up in the garbage. As much as I liked jujubes, the fact that I threw out (or gave away) so many that I didn't like made buying them seem like a waste of money.

But one day when I went with my mom shopping at the supermarket years ago, I spotted a new candy in the bulk foods section. Sour jujubes. My mom ended up buying a small container of them for us to try, and once we got home, I sampled the yellow, green, and orange ones, just to see what they were like. They were fantastic. It was as if someone took the flavouring of a regular jujube, and amped the intensity of them by 100%. Surprisingly enough, the red sour jujubes were delicious as well, considering that in regular format, the red ones were ones that I didn't particularly care for. I was a little hesitant to try the black ones, because of my dislike of licorice flavoured candy. To my surprise, the “black” sour jujubes were really dark purple. And they weren't licorice flavoured. They were grape. In one final contrasting statement for sour jujubes, the “black” sour jujubes are my favourites of the bunch, where as the black regular jujubes are easily my least favourite. Funny how adding sour flavouring to previously disgusting candies can make them better, huh?



2 – SOUR PATCH KIDS

Of all the sour candies that I have tasted over the years, I believe that Sour Patch Kids were the first ones I tried. It seems hard to believe that these little guys could be packed with so much sourness. And would you believe that when they were first created by Paul Mihalick in the late 1970s that they were initially called Mars Men? They were renamed “Sour Patch Kids” in 1985, and if I remember correctly, they used to be sold for a dime a bag over at a local convenience store called Hengeveld's. At the time, my grandparents lived just down the street from that store, and I would go in there for my fix of Sour Patch Kids. There was just something about getting candy from behind the counter that brought such a rush. Sour Patch Kids came in raspberry, orange, lime, and lemon flavours, all flavours I enjoyed, and before they became available to purchase from store shelves, I looked forward to getting that little brown paper bag filled with Sour Patch Kids and other penny candies. Those were the days.



3 – JOLLY RANCHERS

Jolly Ranchers are candies that you either love or you hate. I know many people who say that they can't stand Jolly Ranchers because the flavouring is too artificial, and because the candy gets stuck inside teeth due to the fact that it gets stickier as it dissolves. As for me, I absolutely loved Jolly Ranchers. I think the first time I ever tried a Jolly Rancher was when I was eleven. It was Halloween, and I think someone must have tossed in a package of Jolly Ranchers in my trick-or-treat bag. They were a package of cherry Jolly Ranchers, and when I tried them for the first time, they were like no other candy I've ever tried. They were incredibly tart, but oh so good. These days, I very rarely snack on them (mainly because it appears that my favourite flavour, lemon, was discontinued, or is very hard to find in Canada). But when I was a kid, they were fantastic.



Believe it or not, there's apparently Jolly Rancher soda. If it wasn't for the fact that they were unavailable in Canada, I would like to try one to see if they are any good.



4 – SOUR WARHEADS

For some reason, these little green and red candies were hugely popular at my elementary school. At least they were with the boys. There were a couple of convenience stores within walking distance from the school I attended (if memory serves me, they were the Little Store, and the Kozy Korner store), and both stores sold these. One game that we kids used to play was to see how many Warheads we could stuff inside our mouths at one time. I never got past three or four myself, but some of the kids in my class put so many Warheads in their mouths that their tongues went numb! I guess this explains why the packages now contain a warning on the label explaining that too many Warheads can cause numbness.

For the record, I wasn't really a fan of Warheads. I didn't mind the occasional green one, but I could take them or leave them.



5 – SOUR CHERRY BLASTERS

All right, so there's not a huge difference between these and Sour Patch Kids, but being a huge fan of cherry flavoured candies, I have to add a special spot for these. One memory that is forever linked to Sour Cherry Blasters involves going to see a movie with a group of friends and smuggling a bag of them inside the purse of one of the ladies with us so we could save money on snacks. It was a great idea upon retrospect, and I ended up paying about seven bucks less for snacks.



6 – CRY BABY GUM BALLS

When I was in the fourth grade, almost every kid in my class chewed these. At a quarter a piece, it was a great way to get a boost of sour flavour. I was always partial to the green and blue gumballs myself, but really, all the flavours had the same amount of sour coating.

That's my list of some of my favourite candies that have a little bit of a sour twist to them. What about yours?

Wednesday, April 04, 2012

Welcome To Candy Land!


Have you ever seen the music video for Katy Perry’s song “California Gurls” featuring Snoop Dogg?  If not, you can watch it below.






The song was a massive hit for Perry in the summer of 2010, and was the first of several #1 hits for her from her album “Teenage Dream”.  It also happens to have a loose connection to today’s blog subject.

As you can see from the video, the setting is one gigantic board game.  In the game, Snoop Dogg and his army of evil, gangster gummy bears have total control, and have imprisoned Katy’s friends in prisons made of bubble gum, lime Jell-O, and plastic wrappers.  It’s up to Katy to navigate her way through the jungle of baked goods, tasty treats, and gingerbread men guards to save the day.  It was an interesting concept for a video, and its bright colours, vibrant imagery, and Katy’s bra that shoots out deadly dollops of whipped cream helped make it one of the most requested videos of 2010.

I have my doubts that you’d be able to find a version of Katy’s game in any toy store.  But, today’s blog entry is the next best thing.  Set in a magical land filled with candy and chocolate, it was a board game that many young children played with.  Although I never owned the game myself, I remember playing it at other people’s houses, and finding it incredibly easy, but enjoyable enough.




Today, we’re going to take a look back at the classic board game, “Candy Land”.  The third entry in our special “Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This Week”.

“Candy Land” was designed by Eleanor Abbott.  In 1945, while she was recovering from polio in San Diego, California, Abbott designed the game, and sold the rights to Milton Bradley.  The first version of the game was made available commercially in 1949.

“Candy Land” was designed for a younger demographic.  In many ways, “Candy Land” was touted as a “starter game” for toddlers and young children, much like “Memory” and “Perfection”.  The object of the game was to find the King of Candy Land by making it to the King’s hiding spot first (the final square of the game).  Along the way, players will have to pass through locations such as Candy Cane Forest, Gum Drop Mountain, and Molasses Swamp. 






But the way that players moved around the board was quite unique.  There were no dice, no spinners, not even a plastic bubble in the middle of the game board like the one used in “Trouble”.

The only thing players needed to know to play the game was colours.

The game board of “Candy Land” is divided up into 134 different coloured squares.  The vast majority of these squares can be found in six different colours; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.  The game also comes with an assortment of cards, with the vast majority of them containing coloured squares of the same colour.






When it was time for a player to move, all they had to do was pick a card from the top of the deck, and move to the next corresponding coloured square.  For instance, if the player were to draw a blue square, they would then move to the next blue coloured space in their path on the board.  Sounds simple, doesn’t it?

It was meant to be.  By using coloured cards, players not only got the chance to learn all about the different colours in the world, but it also eliminated the need to count squares or read game cards.  In short, it was the perfect game for parents to play with children between the ages of two and five.

(Come to think of it, I think my kindergarten classroom had “Candy Land” inside the toy room.  I might be mistaken though.)






In addition to the rainbow squares, there are also pink squares.  These squares act as location squares for Candy Land landmarks, as well as squares where you can meet Candy Land citizens such as Queen Frostina or Princess Lolly.  The pink location squares can also be found in the card deck, and if a player picks one, they have to move to that location, regardless of whether it takes you further ahead, or further back (although prior to the 2004 re-release of the game, there was a rule that stated that younger players did not have to go back in the game).

So there you have it.  The winner is determined by how well the cards are shuffled. 






However, the game isn’t quite so easy.  Somewhere along the Candy Land path are spaces that have dots on them (in the 2004 game, they were changed to licorice spaces).  The spaces with holes on them were coloured just like the other squares, but if a player happened to land on one of these squares, they automatically lost a turn, which meant that other players trailing behind could pass.  I looked up game boards online, and it seems that players who draw one of the primary colours (red, yellow, blue) should tread with caution, as holes are usually found in those colours of squares.

There are also cards with double colours on them.  Those cards allow players to move their marker to the second-next space of the corresponding colour.

The game board has changed a total of four times since it was first sold in stores.  When it first hit store shelves in 1949, the board only contained locations, no characters.  The track was modified slightly in the game’s second edition, in the 1960’s.  Character squares were added in the 1980s version of the game.

2004 was the year that the game made a lot of significant changes.  Some characters were renamed or eliminated.  Some locations were also modified (most notably the Molasses Swamp was turned into the Chocolate Swamp).  And, the final space in the game was changed from purple to rainbow, to allow players to win the game.

(Though in my opinion, the 2004 revamp dumbed the game down even further.)

There have since been several different versions of “Candy Land” made.  A Winnie-the Pooh version of “Candy Land” was commissioned, as well as a version starring Dora the Explorer.  In 1986, a version of the game was made that came with a VHS tape, which players were encouraged to watch as they played along.  I vaguely remember the VCR game, as one of the kids in my first grade class brought it in for us to watch, but I’m unable to find any clips of it on YouTube.  A separate DVD version was also released just a few years ago.

At any rate, “Candy Land” is widely considered to be one of the most successful board games ever created.  In the December 2005 issue of Forbes magazine, the game ranked at the top of the list of Best Toys of the 1940s.  That same year, the game was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame.  Until 2006, the Toys R Us location in Times Square, New York City, incorporated a “Candy Land” theme for their candy and chocolate section.  And, it has been reported as recently as January 2012 that a “Candy Land” feature film is in the works...though I have to admit that I have no idea how such a movie could possibly be made.






But if a Katy Perry video, a section of a popular toy store, and a possible motion picture idea can be inspired by a simple board game, it had to have made its mark on pop culture in a big way.

Tuesday, April 03, 2012

April 3, ????

“Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This Week” continues on with the Tuesday Timeline, and as you’ve probably guessed, today’s timeline will be focusing on an event that happens on April 3.




One thing that is a little different is the lack of a year.  Unlike most other Tuesday Timeline entries where we go back in time to a specific year, we are instead going to focus on the date itself.  Believe it or not, April 3 is a significant day in the world of desserts, and has been celebrated for quite a few years.  I wish I could have found more information as to when the tradition began, but I was unable to do so.  Hence the reason why the year has been replaced by four question marks.

That will be the only change to this week’s Tuesday Timeline entry though.  The rest of it remains exactly the same.

So, why don’t we see what else happened on April 3rd, shall we?  We’ll start with celebrity birthdays.  Famous people blowing out the candles on their birthday cakes today include Doris Day, Jane Goodall, Eric Braeden (that’s Victor Newman for you soap fans out there), Wayne Newton, Tony Orlando, Alec Baldwin, David Hyde Pierce, Eddie Murphy, Sebastian Bach, Picabo Street, Jennie Garth, Aries Spears, Cobie Smulders, Leona Lewis, and Amanda Bynes.

As well, we’ll take a look at some historical happenings for April the third.

33 A.D. – While not confirmed, it is widely believed that the historical crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth occurred on April 3

1860 – The first successful Pony Express run took place between Missouri and California

1865 – Richmond, Virginia is captured by Union during American Civil War

1882 – Jesse James is killed by Robert Ford

1885 – Gottlieb Daimler is granted German patent for his engine design

1895 – Trial begins in libel case instigated by Oscar Wilde, results in his imprisonment on charges of homosexuality

1936 – Bruno Richard Hauptmann is executed for kidnapping and killing the Lindbergh baby

1948 – Harry S. Truman signs Marshall Plan; on the same day, Jeju massacre occurs in South Korea

1968 – Martin Luther King Jr. Delivers his “I’ve Been To The Mountaintop” speech

1973 – The first handheld mobile phone call is made by Martin Cooper, of Motorola

1975 – Bobby Fischer refuses to play in a chess match against Anatoly Karpov, giving Karpov the title of World Champion by default

1981 – The first portable computer, the Osbourne I, is unveiled at the West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco, California

1996 – Unabomber suspect Theodore Kaczynski is arrested in Montana

2000 – Microsoft is ruled to have been in violation of antitrust laws by keeping an “oppressive thumb” on its competitors

So, as you can see, just based on the facts and trivia that I have gathered up, it’s some very interesting information, but none of it really works with the theme for the week.

And since I already had plans to make this week a theme week, I was a bit worried that I wouldn’t be able to find an appropriate topic for today.  It really wasn’t until I did a little bit of work on Google that I discovered something very interesting about April 3.  It happens to be associated with one of my favourite sweet treats, and once I found that out, the rest fell nicely into place.




Today is April 3.  National Chocolate Mousse Day!

Believe it!  April 3 is the day where we celebrate the delicacy that is chocolate mousse!




Um...no, not chocolate MOOSE...I mean this stuff.




Doesn’t that just look delicious and appetizing?  Rich, smooth, cool...definitely one of the finest dessert treats one can have.  I believe that the first time I ever had it was when my sister got married in the late 1980s.  One of the desserts offered at the reception was a little dish of chocolate mousse topped with whipped cream.  Being eight years old at the time, I was in love with anything that even so much as resembled chocolate, so I decided to try some, and it was love at first bite.

However, one thing that I learned a bit too late about chocolate mousse was that you had to be careful when eating it.  Otherwise, you may end up dripping some all over the rented tuxedo that you were forced to wear during the wedding.  Oh, yes, that was an interesting story to tell the rental place for sure.

So, what exactly is chocolate mousse anyway? 

According to Wikipedia, chocolate mousse originated from France.  Mousse itself is the French word for foam, which mousse greatly resembles.  Mousse is a prepared food that incorporates air bubbles in order to give it a light and airy texture.  Depending on the recipe that is used, the mousse can appear light and fluffy, or creamy and thick.

Mousses can be made in any flavour.  I’ve seen vanilla, strawberry, raspberry, and even orange flavoured mousse.  However, I find that chocolate mousse is probably the flavour that is considered to be the most popular.  After all, it does have a day named after it.

I thought that in celebration of the chocolate mousse, I’d post a recipe for chocolate mousse, so that you can celebrate “National Chocolate Mousse Day” today as well.  Doesn’t that sound like fun?




Okay, so this recipe comes to us courtesy of late chef, Julia Child.

JULIA CHILD’S CHOCOLATE MOUSSE

INGREDIENTS:

-      1 cup semisweet baking chocolate

-      4 tablespoons strong coffee

-      6 ounces unsalted butter (1 ½ sticks)

-      4 egg yolks

-      ¼ cup rum or ¼ cup strong coffee

-      4 egg whites

-      ¾ cup instant superfine sugar

-      2 tablespoons instant superfine sugar

-      Whipped cream (optional)            

PROCEDURE:

-      Place the chocolate and 4 tbsp strong coffee in a sauce pan and place in a pan of hot water.  Stir for a minute or so, until melting begins

-      Place egg yolks in a bowl and beat, adding the sugar in a thin stream.  Continue beating until mixture is thick, pale, and forms a ribbon.  Beat in the rum.  Set over a pan of almost simmering water and beat for an additional 5 minutes.  Test with your finger to make sure the mixture is warmed through.

-      Allow to cool.  It should again form a ribbon and have the consistency of thick, creamy mayonnaise

-      Stir the chocolate until smooth, and gradually add the softened butter.  When totally in corporate stir the mixture into the yolks and sugar

-      In a clean bowl, beat the room temperature egg whites.  Begin slowly and increase the speed until soft peaks are formed.  Sprinkle with 2 tbsp of sugar and a pinch of salt.  Continue beating until stiff peaks are formed.

-      Fold ¼ of the stiff egg whites into the chocolate mixture to lighten it.  Scoop the remaining egg whites on top and delicately fold them inches.

-      Place into a mold or serving dishes and chill for several hours or overnight

-      Serve with whipped cream if desired.

And there you have it.  You now have your own recipe for chocolate mousse, courtesy of the French chef.  I must warn you, like most delicious desserts, the chocolate mousse isn’t exactly the healthiest food choice.  Although a standard serving is only 287 calories, most of those come from saturated fat.  
So, enjoy in moderation!




If this recipe doesn’t tickle your fancy, fear not.  If you Google chocolate mousse recipes, you’ll find hundreds out there for you to make.  Or, if you’re a klutz in the kitchen, might I recommend Jell-O mousse pudding cups?  They come in several flavours, and are only sixty calories a piece.  I’ve had them before, and I have to say, for a Jell-O product, they aren’t bad.

I hope each and every one of you have a happy National Chocolate Mousse Day today, and remember, snack responsibly!

Monday, April 02, 2012

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Welcome to the first day of the special theme week known as “Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This Week”.


Who am I to disagree?


From April 2 until April 8, all the topics will have something to do with chocolate, candy, and products that are associated with confectionary delights.  The theme days will stay the same, but the content will be ever so sweet.  And, hey, since Easter’s around the corner, there might just be a couple of Easter-themed entries along the way.


For today, we are going to kick off the week with a Monday Matinee feature that was originally a book, and was adapted into film twice.  And, in case you’re wondering why I have turned this entry brown for the day, it’s because the setting of this movie happens to take place at a chocolate factory.


I see some of you in the audience nodding your head in anticipation, as if you already know what the subject of today’s blog is, so I won’t waste any time.




Have you seen this person before?  It happens to be a photo of Gene Wilder, circa 1971.  Some of you who may have Facebook or Twitter accounts may have come across it before, as it is a popular avatar being used for memes such as the one below.



However, I reckon that many of you youngsters out there probably have no idea where this image came from.  Well, it happens to be from the 1971 classic film, “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”, a musical adaptation of the 1964 novel “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, written by author Roald Dahl.




But, wait, I hear some of you saying.  Wasn’t the movie called “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”?  Wasn’t it released more recently than 1971?  Didn’t Johnny Depp play Willy Wonka?  Well, if we were discussing the 2005 remake of the movie, than yes, those facts would be true. 


But I wanted to talk about the original 1971 movie for a couple of reasons.  It not only happens to be the version that I grew up with watching, but it is the version that I enjoy the most.




By all accounts, despite the fact that the movie is widely considered to be a cult hit, it bombed at the box office when it was released in June 1971.  I actually found that surprising, given how so many of my friends have fond memories of this movie.  Another fact that I found interesting was the fact that Roald Dahl hated the final product of the film.  He disliked it so much that it took two decades before he allowed Hollywood to turn another one of his books into a movie!  I suppose I can understand his feelings.  If I had a book that I was proud of, I’d ideally want it to be as close to my original vision as possible.


However, Dahl’s opinions aside, I thought the movie brought a lot with it.  It had chocolate and candy, which almost every child loves, as well as a fantastic and believable child cast.  And, it also had a very important life lesson hidden beneath the nougat, sprinkles, and sugary drizzle...but we’ll get to that a little bit later.




I’m assuming that most of you know what the movie is about, so I won’t bore you with a detailed summary of the plot.  Basically, Willy Wonka has a contest going on where he has hidden five golden tickets in various Wonka chocolate bars all over the world.  The lucky children to find the golden tickets were invited on a grand tour of the magnificent and mysterious chocolate factory where Wonka candies and chocolates are made.  The five children who find the tickets are...




-      Augustus Gloop (Michael Bollner), a chunky German boy who overindulges on anything resembling food.


-      Veruca Salt (Julie Dawn Cole), an English girl who is so spoiled, three month old milk appears fresh in comparison.


-      Violet Beauregard (Denise Nickerson), an American girl who chews gum all day and all of the night.


-      Mike Teevee (Paris Themmen), a boy who spends more time watching baseball on TV rather than playing baseball outside.


-      Charlie Bucket (Peter Ostrum), a young boy poor in money, but rich in kindness who lives with his parents, and his four grandparents.


The five children soon arrive at Willy Wonka’s factory with their mother or father (or in Charlie’s case, a grandfather), and Willy Wonka happily greets them at the door.  As they enter the factory, all five children are absolutely blown away by the magic within its walls.  It’s truly a vision of pure imagination.




At first, the tour goes according to plan, and everyone is happy.  But, then poor Augustus Gloop is drawn to the river of chocolate that flows through the factory, and he decides to drink as much of the sweet, liquid chocolate as he can.  This proves costly for Augustus, as he falls directly into the river.  It’s bad enough that Augustus is unable to swim to safety, but then he gets sucked up into a giant tube, leaving the rest of the tour group in shock.


Don’t count on the little orange men known as the Oompa-Loompas to be of any help.  All they seem to do is poke fun at the situation by singing a song about the missing Gloop boy.




Those silly Oompa-Loompas.  They may appear to be simple sugar lackeys on the surface, but their wisdom should be heeded.


I imagine that it must not have been a great feeling for Mrs. Gloop to see her son almost drown in a river of chocolate and get sucked up to parts unknown.  However, Augustus wasn’t the only child to take an unexpected detour on the tour.  Violet Beauregard’s gum addiction lead to her undoing after she chewed a piece that turned her into a gigantic blueberry.  Mike Teevee ended up shrinking to the size of a pixel after a freak accident involving one of Willy Wonka’s inventions.  And, Veruca Salt...well, see for yourself.




It couldn’t have happened to a nicer gal.


By the tour’s conclusion, Charlie Bucket is the only one left, and Willy Wonka was disappointed, as well as a little angry.  Despite the fact that all Charlie really did that could be considered mischievous was sample some of Willy Wonka’s Fizzy Lifting Drinks, Willy Wonka comes to the conclusion that because the other four children were bad, Charlie must be too. 


Mind you, I won’t spoil the ending of this movie (most of you probably know how it ends anyway), but to give you a hint, it involves these.




That’s your clue to how the whole story wraps up.


So, what life lessons can we take from “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”?  I can come up with a couple right off the bat.  For one, I have no choice but to be a little vague, because if I come right out and say it, I’ll spoil the ending of the movie.  So, I’ll just come out and say it.  Don’t judge people based on the actions of other people.  It was a lesson that Willy Wonka himself needed to learn.  One that a certain young man named Bucket could teach him.


The second, and perhaps most important lesson, that we can learn is that too much of anything is never a good thing.


Let’s face it.  The four children who ended up getting into the most trouble were also the most greedy and self-absorbed.  Augustus Gloop was the poster child for the sin of gluttony, and he ended up in a tight situation because of it.  Violet’s gum-chewing wasn’t really that much of a problem, but her headstrong attitude could be suffocating at times, and her personality lead to her ego (as well as the rest of her body) inflating at an enormous rate.  Veruca Salt wanted it all, but didn’t want to do the work to earn it, which cheapened her personality much like the defective items that were sent down the garbage chute.  As for poor Mike Teevee, his screen time took over his life so much that it seemed fitting that his ultimate fate would involve a television screen.


In the case of Augustus, Mike, Veruca, and Violet, their greedy behaviour got them in a world of trouble.  The parents of the four wasted no time in blaming Willy Wonka for what happened to their children, but the truth is that they did it to themselves with their greedy behaviour.


The lesson is simple.  Don’t be greedy!  Be more like Charlie Bucket!  After all, he was the only one to get the full tour for a reason.  And in a world where we seemingly are under the impression that greed is good, I think that we need more Charlie Buckets in this world to show us that life can be just as sweet on the other side.