02/10/03’s illustrious band:

Bananium

Brought to you by Lightbringer, who posits that, since carrots are known to be excellent sources of the nutrient carotene, it follows logically that bananas are excellent sources of the nutrient bananium.

LB and some other friends and I had a whole conversation the other day about bananas, banana-flavored Popsicles and frozen treats in general. I always preferred the red and purple Popsicles from the red-purple-orange variety pack myself, but I let the orange ones get old and sticky in the freezer. Others liked the banana-, blue raspberry- or root beer-flavored pops. LB was fond of letting a root beer pop or two melt in a bowl, then chunking up another one in the liquid and scooping it up with the wooden stick.

We all recalled being unable, as kids, to neatly break the two-stick Popsicles into even-sized single-stickers, although our parents could do it. Mother Media could make a perfect division by whacking the Popsicle seam on the edge of the sink. Lucy solved the problem by simply eating both pops at once, from the top down, until they parted on their own.

This of course led to a discussion of Dreamsicles, Popsicle-covered ice cream on a stick. I’m of the opinion that Dreamsicles are a crime against ice cream. The two textures are not compatible, and whoever thought of mixing orange ice with vanilla ice cream really needs to go back to the drawing board. However, I seem to be in the minority here; quite a few people love them.

We found greater agreement on Fudgesicles and Drumsticks, those sugar cones filled with vanilla ice cream and topped with chocolate drizzle and a few nut fragments. The best ones have a chunk of chocolate in the tip of the cone to prevent melted ice cream from leaking out.

And what about ice cream sandwiches? Another universal favorite. I still buy these, actually; they’re handy for keeping the amount of ice cream consumed at one sitting under control. These days I usually get the high-tech, low-fat frozen yogurt ones instead of the traditional high-octane version. But sometimes I do go off the wagon and pick up Neapolitan sandwiches — three exciting flavors in one package!

Even though I’m a grown-up now, with no one looking over my shoulder, I still feel I’ve gotten away with something when I grab one of these treats instead of an apple or some carrot sticks. But I still manage to work in a good dose of bananium here and there, too.

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