Okay - since you asked, an explanation is in order regarding the correct spelling of the candy/flavouring associated with chewy black strings or pariah jellybeans. Yesterday I mentioned I didn't care for liquorice. The "quo" variant is actually the British/Canadian spelling, whereas the "co" spelling is one used here in the U. S. of A. Case in point: the liquorice candies shown at left are sold by an online sweetshop as "soft liquorice cakes." From the picture, they could easily be mistaken for fire-damaged coffee cans, nuclear fuel pellets, or cylindrical tar babies.

A topic for another post entirely, but just as I tend to prefer avoiding liquorice, I often prefer British/Canadian spellings. They just seem more proper and correct, somehow. Perhaps it's the amount of time I spent living near - and working in - Canada (one develops a hankering for things moosey and English, although the Canadian maple flavoured tea found at duty free shops is just frightening). Perhaps I had a past life in Jollye Olde Englande. Maybe an over-hearty dose of BBC and PBS during my formative years. Who knows.

Consider this: maybe "licorice" looks more normal that "liquorice" to American eyes, but which do you prefer - "licor" or "liquor"? Had George III prevailed, we might have learned the proverb "bier then licor, never sicor." Ugh.

1. Village People - "In The Navy"
2. Ladytron - "Fighting In Built Up Areas"
3. REM - "Pretty Persuasion"
4. Duke Ellington - "Take It Easy"
5. The New Pornographers - "Mystery Hours"
6. Brian Eno - "Lantern Marsh"
7. Utah Saints - "New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84)"
8. The Heinz Kiessling Orchestra - "Senhorita"
9. Mike Oldfield - "Angelique"
10. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts - "Real Wild Child"

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