Happy New Year world!...  well at least to those who recognize this as the beginning of the year.  I was talking to my niece about this.  She says this is one the worst holidays for her.  I think she does not appreciate the hypocrisy of it all.    We had a nice little talk about the significance of the New Year falling 7 days after Christmas, which is the (depending on how you wanna look at it) rebirth of the sun after the winter solstice.  Also some churches celebrate it as the Feast of Circumcision, being that it would have been the day of baby Jesus being circumsised if he was born on that day.  I told her in many old cultures the new year was in the fall at harvest time and that many societies use/used two calendars, one for civic and one for spiritual holidays (if my memory on the subject is correct).

So time is relevant and of course tied in with the culture and beliefs.  However in our culture, the beliefs and facts are a bit muddy.

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Now on to the mystery of the Flamin' Hot Cheetos.  I have yet to meet a child who does not like them.  I think the youngest I've seen with the FHC monkey-on-their-back would have to be about 1 year old.  In our family kids start eating hot foods pretty young, but even this is early by my standards. They'll get a hold a of hot cheeto and not even wince.  And cry if you don't give them more.  My nieces were straight out addicted.  What the heck is in those things?!  Something is not right.

I typed in Google "hot cheetos addiction" and some webpages came up.  One link a facebook group support group, a couple of wiki answers pages and an urban dictionary definition.  But I'm scared to go to the Urban Dictionary site...  the ud posters write some crazy raunchy stuff I don't feel like settin my eyes upon.     

So what's the deal?   People speculate it has something to do with the red dye and the kids get an actual high from them.  Sounds reminiscent of the "Red Punch Controversy".  Could very well be a factor.  Updates as I find them.

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cottonseed