Wednesday, November 21, 2007

More Q&A - #s 5 and 6



Jill asked: Peanut M&Ms or plain?

"Now there's a question to ponder", thought Jazz, scratching her head and munching on her M&Ms.

Because you see, there's a lot riding on this question. It is a question of coming down squarely on one side or the other. One can't just make it up as one goes along. There are so many pros and cons.

Plain M&Ms:

  • They can be quickly chewed and then you can suck all the chocolate out of them before eating the yummy candy coating.

  • Or, you can just let them melt down to nothing, creamy goodness for long lovely minutes.

  • On the other hand, though they say chocolate is good for you, I'm pretty sure they're not talking M&M grade chocolate. Plain M&Ms are junk, pure and simple.

  • Junk however is good for the soul now and then, not to mention life saving when I'm PMSing and it calms me right down, thus saving everyone around me from the wrath of Jazz. It goes without saying that PMS wrath is deserved by all those upon whom it is visited. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Peanut M&Ms

  • Not so great to let melt in your mouth. The whole peanut thing, dontcha know. How long would it take a peanut to melt? I'd rather not think about it, the very concept somehow disturbs me to a great extent.

  • On the other hand, such a satisfying crunch to the eating of a peanut M&M

  • And then there's the blend of chocolate/candy/peanut to consider. Though I loathe peanut butter and chocolate - it has got to be the most repulsive mix known to mankind - a nice crunchy peanut in chocolate is simply sublime.

  • And of course, there's the nutrition factor. Peanuts aren't junk food, they're chock full of good things, ergo peanut M&Ms are healthy... they're health food even.
Thus, for all the above reasons, I must come down squarely on the side of the Peanut M&Ms. Nutrition and junk all rollled up in one perfect colourful package.

Ticknart asked: How much of The Silmarillion did you actually read?


With his question, Tick seems to doubt that I actually did read the whole thing. Hmmph.

However, I did. I read it. Yes I did.

Lo these many many years ago (eons ago if we must be honest about it - yes, I am that old), after my first reading of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, someone told me about the Simarillion. About how it explains any questions I might have about the other books. About how everything would be explained!

I figured I must read it.

And read it I did. From one end to the other. For some reason I thought it would actually get more interesting after the first 30 pages.

Newsflash: It doesn't.

It was a long long slog through norse myth. A slog through unpronouncable names of people I really didn't give a damn about. And yet I kept with it. I was slogging through quicksand, it was dragging me down and yet I did eventually make it to the end. At some point it stopped being just a book and became a nemesis, it wanted my sanity. It almost got it. But Jazz prevailed.

Perhaps had I had questions to anwer, it would have been more interesting. Thing is, there weren't any questions. That book did teach me though, that if I wasn't into a book after 50-100 pages, it simply wasn't gonna happen and that I should maybe just cut my losses already.

I still can't quite comprehend how the author of my favourite book of all time, LOTR (which I've read at least 10-11 times), can have written that particular piece of boredom.

But I do have a cool bit of trivia for you. Marillion (that favourite, oh so wonderful band - shameless plug) was named Simarillion at the beginning of time, twenty odd years ago. Then the Tolkien family said: Cease and desist using that oh so sacred name. And they became Marillion. Voilà.

13 comments:

furiousBall said...

which is similar to how Better Cheddars got their name. It seems that the inventor of the Cheddar cheese, the Rothchild-Cheddars of Newport News, VA served the Nabisco execs a very similar cease and desist order and Cheddars became Better Cheddars, a cocksure flick of their nose to the Rothchild-Cheddars.

I might have made that up too.

Dan said...

Yummmm. M&Ms. Did you save some for me?

It's Thanksgiving in the US tomorrow. Oh wait a minute. You Canadians did that last month didn't you? :)

Happy Thanksgiving anyway!

Jazz said...

FuriousBall - Well if you made it up, it's a good story. But my story is real. So there! Thanks for stopping by.

Dan - Dan!?! You're back! YAY! (happy dance here). Yeah, we do Thanksgiving, surprisingly enough, during harvest period up here in the great white north, eh. How bizarre is that..

ticknart said...

Jazz, you are the first person I know who's made it through that book. I think I got close to 100 pages in and wanted to gouge my eyes out. Some days, I still pretend that Tolkien wrote The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and then left Middle Earth for good, but when I look through my books, there's that frightening thing.

If only his son would stop "discovering" more of the story.

Ian Lidster said...

Plain M&Ms definitely. I find the peanuts in the other ones to be of interior quality.
But now, M&Ms or Smarties?

Jocelyn said...

Okay, so I'm still at:

"That Furiousball leaves the most hilarious comments"...and "WAIT, Dan's back?"

But I'm getting to: "Thanks for explaining the relationship to Marillion's name"...and "But what about the peanut butter M & Ms?"

geewits said...

Ha! I never caught that connection between your band and your book. Were you influenced by that? I say YES! And because we are practically sisters, I was holding my breath on the first question, terrified I would be heartbroken, but you came through with the obviously correct answer: Peanut M&Ms!
I did try the dark chocolate M&Ms and they were...they were... I don't know, just weird?

Jazz said...

Tick - I bought the "new" book but haven't read it yet. I'm sort of afraid to, truth be told. I'm scared it'll be another simarillion.

Ian - you don't get it. They don't have to be top taste. They're health food! As for the M&M / Smarties dilemma - Smarties hands down. Smarties were my favourite as a child years before I ever discovered the existence if M&Ms. Plus there have always been red ones.

Joce - He does and he is. And do you KNOW Marillion? If so you're one of the few Americans that do and I bow down before you. Oh, and peanut butter M&Ms? I would never ever go there. Peanut butter and chocolate? Never the twain shall meet. PB is for toast. Alone on toast. Not for chocolate, not for jam, not for cookies. PB is perfect and should be left well enough alone.

Geewits - They really got to stop with the whole adding new products thing. M&Ms are peanut or milk chocolate. Fuggedabout the peanut butter (shuddder), almond, dark chocolate... If it ain't broke don't fix it.

Actually though, I read the Simarillion way before I ever heard of Marillion.Had I know where there name came from then, I might have been a bit afraid of listening...

XUP said...

"There are forms of moulds that develop on peanuts. These moulds produce toxics that are harmful; out of those toxics is Alfa-toxin. Alfa-toxin is a suspected carcinogen in stale peanuts that may cause liver cancer." Sooo- watch out for those peanut M&Ms. The chocolate ones are soooo much better and I LOVE the dark ones -- dark chocolate is good for you, ergo, dark M&Ms are health food. (and M&Ms are way better than Smarties)

Rick Rockhill said...

I've always like M&M's. peanut vs plain depends on my mood I think.

cool blog btw.
-Rick

Joe Jubinville said...

I eat them for my MDR of carnuba wax, which they use to coat the candy shell - keeps the stool crisp.

CS said...

Peanut M&M's or plain? BOTH!!

Jill said...

No one can possibly loathe peanut and chocolate! YOU DID NOT SAY THAT!