Goody Goody Gumdrops

Last week I was at the grocery store, fulfilling one of my weekly husbandly duties that keep me in Mrs. Dufus' good books. You know, things like building decks, painting living rooms, cleaning the windows, re-roofing the house - not that I do any of those things, but they are good examples.

Any way, somewhere between cat litter and food waste garbage bags I came across a little confection that I used to love eating as a kid. Confection for those of you who can't keep up is a fancy word for candy.

I got home, unpacked and put away the groceries and then pulled out my guilty pleasure: a 950 gram tub of jujubes. As I merrily plopped one after another in orgasmic pleasure into my salivating pie-hole - I didn't have to worry about how many I ate because they were fat free -- yippee! - I started to think (uh-oh) about what I was eating and where they came from.

According to Wikipedia:

Jujube (pronounced /ˈdʒuːdʒuːb/ or /ˈdʒuːdʒuːbiː/), or jube, is the name of several types of candy, varying in description on a regional basis. The candies can vary in texture form being hard and resinous to something similar to firm loukoum or gummy candies.

In the United States, Jujubes is the brand name of a particular type of candy, whereas in Canada the word is generic, and describes any of many similar confections.

Pronounced what? Whatever. But they appear to be more popular in Canada than in the United States, having already hit generic status. You know like Q-tips, Kleenex, Jello, Canadian dollar? Anyway, my interest was peaked. Speaking of which I was by now a little peaked myself having eaten half a tub of jujubes.

Where did the name come from I wondered? Did some Jewish guy wandering the desert carry a bunch of jubes in his pocket to enjoy as he sought a homeland? And upon finding it, he shared them with a non-Jewish fellow who said "Hey, I guess those must be jujubes." Little did either of them know that many years later that simple act of sharing would result in jujubes being non-denominational.

The Beatles liked jujubes, so much they immortalized them in the song I Am The Walrus. You know how it goes:

"I am the eggman, they are the eggmen, I am the walrus, ju, ju, ju, jube"

That was a really popular song in its day. But not as popular as jujubes.

But the Beatles weren't the first to croon about their favourite candy. Frank Sinatra was encouraging his fans to share them with him when he sang:

"jubies, jubies, do - dah, dah, dah dee, dah"

I don't know what that last part was but Frank was a little weird now and then. In fact they used to say he was often saying something stupid.

Well, gotta go, I think...I'm going...into a bit of...a diabetic shock.