The day is dreary here in DC, with rain pelting the red brick of Georgetown, and making the muddy, swollen streams flow the color of a medium hot chocolate. It all makes me wonder: was it a dream? Was the All Candy Expo all just some wild candy-encrusted fantasy or did it really happen? I guess there’s the proof in the candy giveaway we are wrapping up, along with the hour-long post-show meeting we had this morning here at NCA, but it seems so long ago and remote, like a daydream, like that moment between sleep and wakefulness that John Keats described in his Ode to a Nightingale or that elation Homer Simpson feels in the “Land of Chocolate” episode.
Even looking at the photos is a problem, as it looks larger than life:
Of course it was real – it did happen – but as it was my first Expo, it was a bit dreamlike, so forgive me if I go on a bit about it. And forgive me, John Keats, my favorite of all romantic poets, if you are rolling over in your grave at being mentioned in the same sentence as Homer Simpson.


1:49 pm on May 26th, 2009
Wow. So how do you get to go to the expo? I’m jealous, can you tell?
2:34 pm on May 26th, 2009
Laura, you have to be part of the candy industry. It’s a trade show for companies to display what they produce and for buyers to place orders. That said, there is a lot of fun and education tied to it. So the people who go are staff from our office, buyers, brokers, manufacturers, wholesalers, media, etc. I wish we had something for consumers but then it would just be like a giant candy store. It is rather incredible, though, and a bit overstimulating. Lots of fun, all the same!
9:40 am on June 23rd, 2009
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