Recently, after preschool, I decided to take my daughter to the local candy shop to pick out a treat. Currently, she is obsessed with lollipops. Her favourite kind is butterscotch, which she calls "scotch", and amuses me to no end (she sounds like a tiny "Anchorman"! I like scotch! Scotchy, scotch, scotch!) On this particular day, I suggested she look at other candies, because she might want to try something new. She poured over the Pez dispensers, briefly considered the Nerds ("I'm not old enough to not spill these on the floor!") and seriously debated bubble gum. Then she spotted Pixie Stix.
"What IS that?" She asked, her eyes wide. These weren't the little Pixie Stix, you see. These were the straws that rivaled her own height. The ones you see the mothers give their heavily made up sparkle-spawn on Toddlers and Tiaras before unleashing them on the stage.
"Pixie Stix," I replied. She looked surprised. Her face lit up.
"Really? Pixie Stix? What's in them?"
"Sugar," I told her. "That whole straw is filled with a kind of tangy, sourish sugar. It probably tastes like jello powder. I don't remember."
She looked horrified. "That's not a healthy choice! That whole thing is just sugar?! I thought it would be filled with Pixie dust. That is very disappointing. Why would they call it a Pixie Stick if they didn't even put pixie dust in it? They should call it a sugar stick." Disgusted, she chose her "scotch" dum-dum and we left the baffled candy shop owner to ponder the wonder of a 5 year old that claims to like scotch and eschews giant candies due to their lack of nutritional content.
