Neil Young was interested in a different, more earthy sugar thing, to wit: musical questions about whether or not one had been to Sugar Mountain. His countrymen the Guess Who had the definitive tune on the matter: No Sugar Tonight.

The Archies harmonized over “Sugar, Sugar.” And who can forget Chakha Khan’s Sweet Thing? (or, to those hopelessly stuck on the vernacular, her Sweet Thang)

Er, Frank — I woulda linked to all those tuneful references, but apparently your Typepad setup prevents commenters such as I (XP user, FWIW) from doing so.

It would be mighty Splenda of you to enable such a thing.

So, Leslie, I take it *you’re* talking about *your* sugar bowl, eh?

Perhaps Elayne, your husband’s foul habits might be attributable to something other than his being English. A South African, I find myself getting through 15-20 cups of tea daily (Ceylon, I’m afraid–not one the ridiculous range of herbal poseurs so popular these days), several cups of ghastly powdered coffee (at work), and only occasionally, a cup of decent coffee brewed at home.

“Ten silver saxes, | a bass with a bow | The drummer relaxes | and waits between shows | For his cinnamon girl.”

While the kids use lashings of unrefined sugar (we have ants, but we shoot them–they’re big), I must admit to using a single sweetener. The sugar bowl (and I mean the sugar bowl) is an earthen clay pottery type thing–I’ve just checked–with a most remarkable design on the side. I’d take a snap of it and post it to Flickr had I the means to do so.

I mean that; it really is good and I would not have noticed it but for Halley’s immoderation.

“Pa sent me money now | I’m gonna make it somehow | I need another chance | You see your baby loves to dance | Yeah…yeah…yeah.”

Neil Young | Cinnamon Girl

Note: I wonder if Neil Young has a problem with ants in his sugar bowl?

She would be more needful of something to contain sweetness, that’s for sure. And no doubt, in her case, it would turn into a rock, an object of difficulty, a hardened, unpleasant thing to deal with . . . .

I keep some packets of sugar on hand just in case someone wants it (coffee, tea, whatever). Splenda is the sweetener of choice around here. A house without Splenda (or a restaurant, for that matter) is a house making poor decisions on alternatives to sugar.

Back before the diagnosis of Diabetes there was a lot of honey around here. That came to an immediate halt!

My parents have not only a sugar bowl (never used) but also an old-timey sugar shaker that pours out exactly a teaspoonful with each upending of the glass and metal enclosure. This is an artifact from the luncheonette my maternal grandfather ran, back in the 1920s and 1930s. A very cool item!

powdered cinnamon

sprinkle liberally in cupboards, across ant trails, on door jambs, and everywhere you might be tempted to spray bug killer.

a few days later, when the ants are gone, you can vacuum up the mess, although it doesn’t hurt to leave it in the cupboards… smells nice and discourages the bugs from returning.

I’ve heard that the reason it works is that it clogs up the bugs’ respiratory system.

La Princessa de Todo said last night, “Oh, mom, the ice has protein in it again”.

The cats stare accusingly at the moving, black-dotted cat food.

So no sugar bowls for us. Even the freezer isn’t safe from the ants.

Blogs that don’t accept comments, or require you to have some kind of membership, or my personal least-favorite, blogs where you can’t email the owner with a private comment, are really just online newspapers.

The Moderator: I’m thinking Halley messed up by moderating my comment into oblivion. This is exactly the conversation she was looking for with her post.

Halley. You messed up, girl.

(The Moderator looks out over the audience significantly. He looks left. He looks Right. He looks straight ahead. Then he pivots on the balls of his feet and exits as “A Spoonful of Sugar” from Mary Poppins winds up quickly from zero rpm to 78 on the old Victrola)

Still a kid at heart, I like sugar on my cereal, but have been using the little yellow packets lately without adverse effects. Other than the hair coming out by the roots, of course. Sugar bowl, yes. Empty, yes. Use it only when guests are present, more for show than anything, I think.

As to sugar bowls, the one we own is empty in the china hutch because of that same hard lump problem. If people want sugar, we send them to the cooking canisters with a spoon. Oddly, it’s generally a big white rock in there too.