12 May 1999
bobstoppers

Nancy brought gobstoppers into work today to share with the rest of us. It's been a long time, and clichéd as it is... they seemed smaller than I remembered.

Remember how much noise they make in their self-dispensing box? I rattled them around and peered in the small opening to glimpse the bright shiny reds and yellows and deep purples... like a VW dealership lot on the sunniest day you can imagine.

And after the candy coating wore off, the little gob stuck to the side of my cheek like those velcro paddle/ball games... just like it did when I was a little kid. The nostalgia rush... unbelievable.

At some point today, I accidentally said "bobstopper" instead of "gobstopper" and I told Todd that "bobstoppers" are actually the sister-candy to gobstoppers, except they have magic powers when you eat them... like Mentos. In this case, as the name implies, by popping a "bobstopper" in our mouths we could stop the wrath of Bob, our evil nail-clipping boss.

At lunch under the bright warm sun, over a feta and onion pizza, I enthused about the commercials for "bobstoppers". I'm trapped in my weekly meeting while Bob drones on and on when suddenly I get an idea (which is noticeable by some dorky grin I don.) I take out my box of "bobstoppers" (careful to fully display the product's logo) and pop one in my mouth. Suddenly, Bob melts into a puddle like the Wicked Witch of the East (or is it West?) and I smile enthusiastically at the camera, make an over-exaggerated thumbs-up and smartly hold up the box for proper product placement.

Todd and I decided that all of the "bobstopper" commercial spots would be inherently similar, except of the method of Bob's "stopping". I suggested that in one he could be sucked out of the room with a vacuum-like force. Todd said these variances reminded him of PowerPoint slide transitions. Wipe right, checkerboard, swivel.

I think we'd augment all the changes in our lives with PowerPoint transitions if we could.