Lollygagging

Oldsters everywhere can rejoice as the flavors of their parent's youth return with vengeance.

Lollyphile, a San Francisco confectioner, has opened shop with two unusually flavored lollipops.

Absinthe, for lovers of the liqueur, is the first flavor in the expected lime green shade. Absinthe tastes like licorice - the black kind, not the cherry ones.

The second flavor...wait for it...is maple bacon. Perhaps we've taken convenience food to its inevitable, gory conclusion.

But for those who care about such things, the maple bacon lolly is made with real, Vermont maple syrup, which I'm sure is humanely culled.

There are also real bits of sustainable, organic (it is San Francisco) cured bacon wrapped in mapley candy goodness. The website says that the salty bacon juxtaposed against the sweet maple syrup makes for a taste sensation.

Now this is what I'm talking about: Progress. A person can now satisfy his diabetic and heart-diseased cravings with one verboten candy, his transgression as neatly concealed as an easily disposed candy wrapper.

The lollys start at 4 for $10, but the prices go down the more you buy. The company plans to make and market other unexpected and unusual flavors. How long it can be until they come out with a castor oil flavored lolly?

Wait, they don't use free-range bacon? Can they do that in San Francisco? That kind of barbarity is usually reserved to Texas.