11 minute read
City Voices
FIRST PERSON
The Library of Disposable Art — Candy Necklace
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DAVID MACPHERSON I have to ask, who thought
I’m sure this happens to you that candy worn around a kid’s all the time. You are sitting neck was a good idea? A kid who around, doing nothing, has been running around the making no mischief, when neighborhood this entire humid in pops a notion into my head, day, and now that he needs a
“What is the history of the candy break, he will eat pieces of his necklace? And why are people necklace, for energy. There is nothnot wearing them around to put a ing more delicious than a candy little sweetness into their bling?” coated in neck sweat. Yum-yum.
Yes. We all of such thoughts, there I suppose it is either a candy is nothing to be ashamed to think dirty from sweat or the candy left such things. alone on the kid’s pocket, gather-
Has anyone spent time, I mean ing up all the lint and tissue paper serious time, wearing a candy it can around its body. Wow. It just necklace, or the smaller candy occurred to me. I am shocked but bracelet? Have you sashayed your what our parents let us eat as kids. way home with a few ounces of The problem with candy candy wrapped around your neck? necklaces as disposable art is that
My son tells me of a kid at his it really not that artistic. It’s just a school who would start the day string of sucking candies around with five candy bracelets on his a child’s neck. It does not cry out, wrist. He ate about a bracelet an “This is art that was not meant to hour. At the end of the day, he last!” The only thing it says to me would be without candy bracelets when I see one around a 5th gradand he also then spoke in a tongue er is, “Oh man, that kid is gonna be that no one could understand. off the wall all afternoon!”
No one knows the real origin of I am disappointed to not find the candy bracelet. Some things of any beautiful diamond rings made greatness are shrouded in mystery. from the finest of hard candies.
One place said there was a rumor I guess they are out there, but I that they came from Northern Eu- can’t find it. rope. I love the word “they” used What I have found is candy as “rumor.” Like people, at candy turning into jewelry, not the 27, 2021 conferences, whisper what their grandparents told them about a world in the frozen North where not only did people eat candy, but they wore it too. other way around. There are a few jewelers who take candy and encase it in resin. They then put the resigned candy on necklaces or earrings or rings. You want WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM JANUARY 21 WORCESTER MAGAZINE’S LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY Letters to the editor are a great way to share your thoughts and opinions with thousands of readers and online viewers each week. There is no word limit, but we reserve the right to edit for length, so brevity is your friend. If handwritten, write legibly - if we cannot read it, we are not running it. A full name and town or city of residence are required. Please include an email address or phone number for verification purposes only. That information will not be published. Make sure your letter makes it into Worcester Magazine in a timely fashion — send it in by the Monday of the next issue. Please note that letters will run as space allows. Send them to Worcester Magazine, 100 Front St., 5th Floor, Worcester, MA 01608 or by email to WMeditor@gatehousemedia.com. What we do know for certain is that in the late ‘50s the candy necklace was introduced. They tend to use the Smarties candy. licorice candy earrings or a Jordan almond necklace. That can happen. With real candy, but you can’t eat it. It will last the years. It
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can be a heirloom handed down from daughter to daughter. “I am giving you your grandmother’s favorite piece of jewelry, the tennis bracelet made from gummy bears. I know she will be smiling down when you wear it.”
This would not fit as disposable art. This is art that uses candy as a starting block. I pity the candy starved fool who tries to bite into the Jordan Almond ring.
I guess what I would like to see is someone wearing a candy necklace and not eating it away until it is only naked elastic. They could eat it, they could make it go away, but chose not to. They like the way it looks on them. They like that pop of pastel color around their neck. They are not saving the dessert for later, but making a fashion statement.
And when your friends see that you are no longer sporting such a fine piece of jewelry around your neck, you can tell them, “I needed a change of style. And besides, I got hungry.”
David Macpherson is a poet, author and humorist living in the Worcester area.
HARVEY
JANICE HARVEY
Remember when you were a kid, and somebody slapped a “KICK ME” sign on your back? You walked the school corridors, wearing it, until you realized that the entire student body was laughing at you for being a doofus. Remember how stupid you felt when your creepy cousin pulled the ol’ “Hey your shoe’s untied!” trick on you and you fell for it? It’s the worst feeling, knowing you’ve been a sap for a bully. A sucker. Played for a fool.
That’s how it should feel to be a die-hard supporter of Donald J. Trump. Thousands of his most gullible fans stormed the Capitol building wearing “KICK ME” signs in the form of riot gear, after being convinced that saving America from the evil clutches of Democrats was their sacred duty.
“I’ll be there with you,” Trump bellowed as he gave his devoted followers marching orders. He must have meant “in spirit” because darned if he wasn’t holed up elsewhere, watching “Insurrection 2021” on a flat screen while his son Junior and sidepiece Naugahyde Nell danced to “Gloria.”
Comparisons to 9/11 have been made ad nauseum since a mass of loud white guys with nothing better to do stormed the castle two weeks ago. Apples and oranges, folks. We can’t even rally behind our president against the marauders because, to quote that brilliant possum Pogo, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” At least we could pretend to be on the same page when Osama Bin Laden’s fly boys slammed into the Twin Towers. Instead, Republicans are playing “Pin the Coup on the Donkey,” and the divide widens with each passing day.
While everything about January 6th was astonishing, what I find particularly nutty is the
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WORCESTERIA
Finding trust in the age of pandemic
VICTOR D. INFANTE
SHADY DEALS IN HOLDEN: The other day, my wife’s ongoing redecorating-through-Craigslist-finds efforts brought me to a neighborhood in Holden where I’d never been before. I’ve said before that buying things off Craigslist kind of resembles a drug deal – you try not to share too much information, but you usually still feel the need to make awkward small talk during the transaction – but COVID-19 has made it even weirder. This time the instructions were to to drive down the long driveway, leave the money in the wooden shoe, take the end table and leave. Let me tell you, taking furniture off a stranger’s porch feels weird, but as I was stuffing my money into the clog, I was struck by how much trust this whole business entailed. It was only $20, and it was only an old end table, but still: That’s how we make it through this madness. We learn to trust each other. But man, sometimes that’s difficult. We do not make it easy on one another.
TRUTH & CONSEQUENCES: The fallout from the Jan. 6 sedition just keeps coming, and the local ties are a little painful, including a popular musician who plays here often, and the owners of a fairly popular local restaurant. I’ve written about the musician a few times. I’ve never been to the restaurant, although friends speak highly. I’m not naming them here because this isn’t really about them; it’s about that feeling of betrayal one feels when you see that someone you liked was caught up in a mess like that, the feeling that the divide is so deep you have to let someone or something go. To be fair, simply attending the Jan. 6 protest doesn’t automatically mean one’s a white supremacist or was planning sedition – a lot of people never went inside the Capitol, and some insist they had no idea anything like that was happening – but man, by now you have to be aware of the company you’re keeping. The aforementioned musician, in a post on Facebook, insinuated he was being targeted for “supporting a candidate.” No. He’s being singled out for possible participation in an event that resulted in an act of attempted sedition and the deaths of five people, including a Capitol police officer. That’s a little above and beyond your average protest, even your average riot. It’s hard to take you at your word when the stink of that sort of toxicity is all over you.
STRANGE TIMES AT THE STOP & SHOP: I fully admit that I’ve joined the legions of consumers who have been having most of their groceries delivered, grocery stores being among the places its hardest to stay socially distant. Frankly, it’s in grocery stores where you usually see just how bad some people’s face mask game is, usually punctuated by the mask dangling off the person’s chin. But sometimes, you realize you’re missing odds and ends, and you just need to go. There was sort of an eerie calm at the Stop & Shop on Lincoln Street this weekend. The store wasn’t as busy as I’ve seen it the past few times, but moreover, people had seemingly upped their mask game. Everyone was wearing them, everyone seemed to be making a reasonable effort at social distancing. One woman apologized when she got too close reaching for spaghetti. People seemed to wait patiently at the registers. Maybe I just hit it at a good moment, but it felt that people were taking the guidelines seriously, which often hasn’t been the case, lately. Face masks work better to keep you from infecting other people than they do keeping other people from infecting you, so like everything else, there’s a good deal of trust involved in the process. If we all wear our masks properly, it shows that we don’t want to harm others. In any case, as I watched a young teller deal patiently with a routinely discombobulated customer ahead of me, I was struck by how much trust the people who work in these stores have to have in us all the time, and how rarely we earn it. They’re not scheduled to be vaccinated until Phase Two, which means February or March, so perhaps we should try even harder to be worthy of that trust. It’s what we owe them, and each other. It’s the only way we make it through.
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attitude of those participating in the badly botched coup, post-insurrection. As they were nabbed at airports by FBI agents, they whined and wept like toddlers yanked from the playground for naughty behavior. Exactly what did they think would happen? “He made me do it!” might not cut it as a defense in Federal Court, though it was enough to get their feckless leader impeached for a second time. Did they think they were tailgating at a Holy Cross football game, packing up the cooler, driving tipsy, and hoping to make it home without getting pulled over?
Just what was their plan? Once the mob gained entry to the Capitol, once they carried out whatever murderous deeds they intended to commit, what next? Many screeched that they were “taking back the country” but what do those words mean? Were they prepared to replace Nancy Pelosi with the guy wearing Viking horns? Perhaps they believed they would be able to assassinate our leaders — including Vice President Pence — and board a bus home as heroes. That’s not the way this works.
DC has been “quiet” as I write this. The National Guard naps on the floor of the Capitol, a bizarre sight indeed. No further assaults on our democracy have occurred — at least nothing like the deadly attack inspired by the departing Trump. But the damage to our psyche has been done — such is the goal of terrorists, to shake us from our foundation. To widen our great divide, the possibility that insurrectionists were aided by certain elected officials and members of law enforcement looms, a possibility more jolting than any attack by a band of fevered cretins. We were already torn apart by the coronavirus, holding each other at bay out of fear of infection. In many ways, we’ve been terrorized by the invisible invader COVID-19 for the last 10 months, forcing us to question each other. We wonder if others are as faithful to mask-wearing and social distancing as we are. Who can we trust? Who can we believe? The attempted coup and the questions it raises only serve to further dichotomize Americans. That Joe Biden and Kamala Harris willingly accept the task of righting this leaky, listing ship we call America is admirable. Lesser leaders have paddled ashore.
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