Quote of the Day (Rich Cohen, on Pop Rocks and the Golden Age of ‘Weird Candy’)

“Weird candy is what we had instead of the Internet. It was a golden age, with Red Hots, Everlasting Gobstoppers, Bubblicious and Freshen Up, a gel infused gum that exploded in your mouth. Pop Rocks were akin to The Sex Pistols or The Clash: loud, industrial, meant for youth and possibly dangerous.”—American nonfiction writer and columnist Rich Cohen, “Back When: No, Pop Rocks Did Not Kill Mikey From the Life Cereal Ad,” The Wall Street Journal, Feb. 15-16, 2025

I am nearly a decade older than Rich Cohen, so I missed Pop Rocks—introduced 50 years ago—and the other candy that made such an impression on his childhood.

It’s odd, but every age cohort seems to have its own urban legend about someone who was supposed to have died but did not. Mr. Cohen had John Gilchrist, the child actor who played “Mikey” in those ubiquitous 1970s commercials for Life cereals.

My age group had to sort through false rumors that child actors Jerry Mathers and Jay North had been killed in Vietnam, and that Beatle Paul McCartney died in 1966, only to be replaced by a lookalike.

Nowadays, with social media and at least one alleged cable “news” network, urban legends spread more rapidly—and sometimes with hideous consequences. Nine years ago, Edgar Maddison Welch, after hearing Alex Jones trumpet the absurd “Pizzagate” conspiracy, traveled from North Carolina and, upon reaching the DC establishment at the center of Jones’ tales, fired shots in the Comet Ping Pong restaurant.

In any case, I’m glad I didn’t try Pop Rocks or any of the other “weird candy” Cohen recalls. Over the years, I’m sure they have been the bane of many dentists!