For Sailor Jack & Bingo.

Devastation

The hardening is deliberate and cruel,
as is all that will come thereafter.
The only consolation being that so many,
so very many others, share the same fate.

The heat, the sweat, the pain.
Left and right, succumbing to the pressure,
those known to you perish.
Blown apart, ripped open, left white
in shock. Naked guts torn inside out.
A mushroom cloud of exposed flesh,
shards of skeleton clinging to the core.

Throw these now (still exhaling steam)
to the gaping maw, to be mashed to pulp
and lowered into hot acid.
Ground in the mingled bile and bones
of comrades, and finally
rammed the length of a cold hard pipe
into a rotting cesspool…

where there is nothing,
nothing more devastated
than popcorn.
___________

I have always been interested in the life cycle of popcorn.
As such, I wrote the above poem oh.... I guess about a year or so ago.
I think of it as sort of a tribute. A eulogy in honor of the sacrificial life of the kernel we all love to eat.
This evening, I am especially thinking of the glories of popcorn as I sit here at the mega-bookstore drinking my own body weight in coffee. Because today, June 16th, is an important day in the history of one of the best things that ever happened to popcorn!
Cracker Jack!

It was 112 years ago today, on June 16th, 1893, that a man by the name of R.W. Rueckheim introduced this innovative amalgamation of popcorn, peanut, and molasses at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
Admittedly, there were a few kinks to be ironed out in the product (premature meltage).... but in 1896, R.W.’s brother Louis perfected a process whereby the molasses-covered popcorn morsels would remain separate.... and there you have it! The world of popcorn was revolutionized!
Louis gave a sample of the treat to a salesman who exclaimed, "That's crackerjack!"
"So it is," said F.W. Rueckheim, who then had the words trademarked.

This stuff was a significant part of my overall diet, growing up. I would just love it when Dad would come home and surprise my sister and me with matching boxes of Cracker Jack. Till today, it is one of the very few "candy" type items that can tempt me at the checkout line in the supermarket. It is invariably there (in bags now, not those old wax-lined boxes). I do NOT have a sweet tooth, meaning I am not a dessert or candy-bar type person. The racks of candy bars tempteth me not! Nor do the cakes and goodies in the display cases at Starbucks.
But Cracker Jack?
Oh yeah! It’s got my number! It’s in the cart!
There is just something about it that is so DANG good! The peanuts inside there. Why do they just taste better than peanuts everywhere else in the world? Is it just me? Am I nuts?
Am I the only one addicted to Rueckheim’s devilishly ingenious confection?
Apparently not!
Because (I love trivia, if you have not noticed this by now)... it is a fact that enough Cracker Jack has been sold that if laid end-to-end it would circle the Earth more than 69 times.
[I know it sounds like it, but I am NOT making this up as I go along].
In 1912 they began their "A Prize in Every Box" feature.
[In my morbider moments, I have wondered how much Cracker Jack went down with the Titanic on April 14th of that same year].
Since then, they have given out more than 23 billion of these little surprise toys. Believe me, I know! Many times I’ve been so greedy after the popcorn, I have inadvertently eaten a few of these toys!
[They taste not bad, but the popcorn’s better. I repeat... do NOT eat the toys.... they do not ummm... digest well.]
Some old Cracker Jack prizes are valued at more than $7,000. A complete series of the 1915 baseball cards, original and in near mint condition, has been valued as high as $60,000.
Which proves at least one thing beyond a shadow of a doubt. People who are serious collectors of Cracker Jack memorabilia.... are also LOONY!

You know the little boy and his dog? They appear on the package?
This is Sailor Jack and Bingo, repectively.
So I just want to say.... Happy Birthday to Sailor Jack and Bingo.
Happy 112th.
Seriously, neither of you look a day over...... ten!

Popcorn.
Such a devestating, selfless, violent life it lives and dies. For us. All for us.
On our behalf!
It literally blows itself up for us.
We benefit, from its trials.
Buy a box (or bag) of Cracker Jack today, my friends....
... lest we forget!