Inquisitor of the Nauseating, Ghastly, Repulsive, Revolting so Called Candy

Q: Dear 100HB:
Where do candy corns come from?

Sincerely,
Hal Louene

A: Dear Candy Cobbed Genesis:

First created in the 1880s by George Renninger of the Wunderle Candy Company, the three colors of candy corn are meant to symbolize actual corn. George Renninger came up with the idea to celebrate the unique food from the Americas but mostly because he was corny and vindictive. After all who else could possible invent something that looks like corn but tastes far worse and then call it candy? Each piece is approximately the size of a whole kernel of corn, as if it fell off a ripe or dried ear of corn. When candy corn first appeared, it was popular among farmers because of its agrarian look. They used the candy to fool pests into eating the candy rather than eating the farmers actual corn stock.

Candy corn is made primarily from sugar, corn syrup and honey. Working by hand, the original manufacturers first combined sugar, corn syrup and water and cooked them into a slurry. Fondant was added for texture, and marshmallows provided a soft bite. The final mixture was then heated and poured into shaped molds. Three passes were required during the pouring process, one for each colored section. Few changes have been made to the process or recipe.

Candy corn can be found at most popular grocery food stores in the United States. This is mostly due to the little known fact that candy corn is actually not manufactured anymore because it is not consumed anymore. That is right, NO ONE makes candy corn anymore. But you say, “they must I have some in my house right now”. Sure, just like everyone else.


The Goelitz Candy Company (now Jelly Belly Candy Company) started producing the confection in 1900. In 1952 Goelitz Candy Company found that kids in actuality don’t eat the bland tasting candy. At first this was due to a misunderstanding where kids thought that the candy corn was a candy version of the corns one gets on their feet. Since the candy had the same texture and taste the kids could not be blamed for their assumption.

In an effort to save on costs and be more environmentally friendly the company decided to send out representatives to simply collect all the unconsumed candy corn from people’s houses a week after Halloween. These remnants proved to be 98% of production that year. Goelitz’s research found that only a small population in Michigan was consuming 2% of their product while the rest went untouched- unconsumed.

One would think that George Renninger’s ancestors would be hurt by the news that no one in truth likes or even eats candy corn. But that is not the case. These brilliant entrepreneurs have been collecting candy corn remnants over the years, repackaging and selling them again for the next year. With the slashing in production costs, Goelitz has been raking it in since. According to the National Confectioners Association roughly 35 million pounds of candy corn will be "produced" this year.


But now the secret is out and we know that 35 million pounds of unconsumed candy corn are actually COLLECTED and recirculated out. That equates to nearly 9 billion pieces—enough to circle the moon nearly 21 times if laid end-to-end. The 100HB appreciates Goelitz's innovative business strategy modelled after the Treasury Department.


October 30th is National Candy Corn Day- this in no joke. So when you pick up a candy corn this week just think it may be as old as your grandpa.

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Let me think...minus 9 months means...

Q: Dear 100 Hour Board,

You have been busy 100 board, and i will add to your work load... i have a birthday coming up and this got me wondering, what month has the most birthdays celebrated in? thank you wise one...

Birthday Boy

A: Dear Spank Receiver (for your birthday and unnatural habit of not capitalizing your i's),

The 100 Hour Board most humbly apologizes for the delay in this answer. To our dismay, we have been stuck in a government archive digging out the information you requested. Unfortunately we were locked in one of the warehouses, and although we believe we saw the famed Ark of the Covenent, we did not relish our lengthy stay.

However, we have recovered some information for you. Hopefully you have not turned whatever you will turn this year yet, and we can assist in your celebratory exercises.

There are lots of answers on the internet regarding the most popular birth day and birth month. Many are not correct. Their sources are rather dubious. In fact I think you could pretty much pick any month by random (although not using 2, 6-sided dice as you will then only select months of Feb through Dec - although we can usually leave January out as a rather dull month will dull birthday kids) and supply a better answer. But the 100 Hour Board has come through again and given you the correct answer.

September!

But not by too much. First the information is hard to come by because the US Census buerau does not track births or birthdays, they leave that to the National Center for Health Statistics who are much more interested if you are born healthy and with 4 limbs than when exactly. (Actually there is a lot of data recorded by the NCHS and these results are confirmed by their data).

One website "Anybirthday.com" (a site providing a service whereby you can query any friend's or enemy's birthday just in case you need to send a present or order a credit card) uses a database of most states census records and birthdates. Although it isn't complete it is fairly concise. It points out that September is the lucky month. And January and February being unluckily lonely. (By the way they also point out that October 5th is the most common birth day.)

The NY Times summerized this research in a study that again points out that September is the most popular birth month.

Why you ask? I suppose we naturally turn towards excesses of egg-nog, idle time and frisky natures around Christmas. Yes September minus 9 months is December. Makes you wonder what people really mean when they sing the "Twelve Days of Christmas" and all those "lord's a leaping". And October 5th would point towards drunken hook-ups thanks to the ball dropping. This trend has been noticed since 1942 when the first reliable data tracking started.

However, September is a common birth month in non-Christian societies also - like India and Isreal. And in European countries they tend to favor the Spring. So it isn't just a proliference of Barry White music played over the Holidays.

Scientists are looking at other factors. (Here is one study that found that Crohn's disease is NOT related to the seasonality of birth date - for some of our interested readers.)

So, although the reasons are less certain - or perhaps varied (like based around Victoria Secrets sales or maybe due to temperature and length of the night...because no one except Canadians like to conceive in the snow) - we generally can assume that in the US there is something to that Holiday - unexplained birth 9 months later phenomenon. What you should really ask, is what month has the most unplanned pregnancies. My guess is still September. Although November 14th is a good guess.

The 100 Hour Board (not born in September!)
PS - Here is a great NY Times article from 1901 about the popularity of February as a birth month for famous people. Although I don't think we would consider Rose Terry Cooke famous nowadays. Although George Derby of New York vehemently disagrees in a follow-up letter-to-the-editor a bit later. Now you know what your great-grandparents did for fun. No wonder they had lots of September babies.

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