It's a sweet task

I am sucking on a jellybean as I write this column. I know that I don't need the sugar. I know that I am already overweight. But I bought a sack of the enticing little ovals yesterday at the store and they won't leave me alone. One reason I bought them was that they are not in season. I usually buy jellybeans at Easter and pig out on them then. But this is Halloween, Thanksgiving time. Jellybeans are not the candy you think of in connection with those holidays. I thought if I bought the jellybeans then I wouldn't be tempted to buy the candy corn, which is another one of my passions. I knew if I bought the candy corn I would just keep eating them until they were gone. After all we are supposed to eat a lot of vegetables. One chart I saw said that yellow vegetables were especially good. So the yellow and brown candy corn would fit two categories.

I didn't yield to that temptation. I decided that the Easter type candy would be less of a hazard to my weight.

With jellybeans you can do scientific experiments. Put a red one in your mouth and don't chew it. Just let it dissolve until you no longer feel any texture in your mouth. How long did that take? Then get an orange one and do the same thing. Did the orange dissolve at the same rate as the red one did, or did it take longer? I kept myself awake for a long solo drive across north Missouri back in the '70s doing this experiment as I traveled along Highway 36 following a speaking engagement. We lived in Savannah, Mo., at the time and in the two-hour drive in the dark, I only used up half the bag of jellybeans. That night I found that the flavor of the pink ones stayed with me the longest. I'm not sure what will happen today.

I think I have a different brand this time. I have found that you have to be careful when buying the candies. Some that aren't called jellybeans but are named jelly eggs don't taste as good. The larger ones that are filled with marshmallows are not suitable at all for my testing process. In fact, they don't even tempt me.

My mother shared a love for the black ones. In our Easter baskets she would pick out the black ones from my sister's basket because she knew Ellen didn't care for them. She left mine intact because I did, and still do, love the black ones. However this present bag didn't seem to have any black ones in it. I probably will need to go buy another bag in order to complete my experiment. I will sacrifice in order to make my findings complete.

If I had bought the candy corn there would be no basis for the experiment.

They are all the same color and usually about the same size. They are equally good and equally tempting. I am glad I bought the beans so I wouldn't overindulge in the sweets.

Sometimes in the process I forget my scientific approach and start to chew on the candy instead of letting it just dissolve. Then there is no alternative but to get another one of the same color and repeat the test. I just now made that sacrifice with a pink one.

I don't have a chocolate fetish like some people. I do enjoy a nice piece now and then, but I don't really crave it. I have a bag of M & Ms that are just sitting on the counter untouched. But I just thought. They come in different colors. I need to do research on them too!