Liquorice pipes
Liquorice pipes are a thing of the past. In both senses.
I used to load up on liquorice pipes in Kavanagh's down the end of George's Street in Dublin every Saturday until one day the kind old man behind the sweet jars broke my heart and told me that he can't get them anymore. Apparently I'd been eating his old stock for months (they sell old sweets. In both senses) until they were gone. Cold Turkey time.
Few years later I came across one of them online sweet shops and went straight for the liquorice section. There was a footnote on the page saying that Liquorice pipes have been renamed to Liquorice Wands. How gay is that? Presumably in some misguided attempt at political correctness. It'd be fair enough if they just renamed and reshaped them but these wand things are completely different.
Sweets and/or candy have a murky past when it comes to 'political correctness', chocolate babies dissapeared from shops in early 80's and remember those Smarties knock offs that had the Mexican and Chinese charcaters? Recently Kraft came unde fire for their Road Kill Candy, they eventually cancelled the whole line.
Animal rights activists are disgusted by a new candy from Kraft Foods Inc. that's shaped like critters run over by cars — complete with tire treads.
The fruity-flavored Trolli Road Kill Gummi Candy — in shapes of partly flattened snakes, chickens and squirrels — fosters cruelty toward animals, according to the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. "It sends the wrong message to children, that it's OK to harm animals. And that's the wrong message, especially from a so-called wholesome corporation like Kraft," said society spokesman Matthew Stanton.
'Sends the wrong message to kids'? Bollicks. Surely selling toy guns in toy shops in a country where firearms are everywhere is sending the wrong message to kids. Or having a stupid little
sap for a president can't be doing the kids much good either.
You can understand the cancelling of candy cigarettes as there is definite proof of tobacco makers luring kids in with the sweets but how many people smoke pipes as a result of liquorice pipes? Pipes haven't enjoyed the sexy revamping of cigars and I can't see it happening anytime soon. Unless....