Dum Dum's

 On my desk in the office I have a sticky note with the words- expanding toilet seats. It was an idea that Jen and I were talking about several days ago; I can't remember why. It had something to do with people who had large behinds and how a standard size seat wouldn't seem to fill the bill. I don't want to get too graphic here, but I would imagine that an exceptionally large person would have a good bit hanging off the seat- thus the need for an expanding seat. It's probably the next million dollar idea. However, the above picture doesn't look anything like a toilet seat- and for good reason. What we have here is a basket of Dum Dum pops. I don't know why they're called pops.  I always referred to them as suckers. I do, however, know why they're called Dum Dums. Back in 1924, I C Bahr, an early sales manager for the Akron Candy Company coined the name Dum Dums figuring it was a word that any child could say. I don't know how well it would go over if a new parent, waiting for his child's first words heard Dum Dum instead of the familiar DaDa. Perhaps the child has been born with an incredible degree of insight concerning his parents though, and it was no mistake. Anyway, some more facts about Dum Dums. The Akron Candy Company was purchased by the Spangler Candy Company and moved to Bryon Ohio.  There are sixteen flavors at present including a mystery flavor. I don't doubt that I've tried most of them, including some that they didn't use to have when I was a kid. The other night I put a cotton candy flavored Dum Dum in my mouth mistakenly thinking it was a root beer flavored one. Can't say I really cared for it. Fortunately Jan was with me and took it off my hands - or out of my mouth as the case may be. Then I grabbed one with a green wrapper thinking it must be lime, but it wasn't. It was cream soda instead. I happened to like that one. I think the Spangler company should make the lettering showing the flavor larger for us old fogeys who can't see worth a hoot without our glasses. I checked out the website for Dum Dums and found that they have a shelf life of thirty six months. That's longer than Kim Kardashian's relationships. I also discovered that Spangler is the maker of those round flat suckers with the cellophane wrapping and the fiber loop handle called Safe T Pops. I love those things! Amongst the other fascinating facts I discovered was that there are ten million Dum Dums produced each day. At that rate, our idea for the expanding toilet seat had better get into production soon. They will probably work well with my idea for concrete re-inforced toilets.