Visions of sugarplums danced in their heads...

There is a *raging* furore in the dance world right now about sugarplums.

For those who haven't been privy to the latest Fat is a Feminist Issue drama, Alastair Macauley of the New York Times wrote in a review of Balanchine's Nutcracker that; "Jenifer Ringer, as the Sugar Plum Fairy, looked as if she’d eaten one sugar plum too many; and Jared Angle, as the Cavalier, seems to have been sampling half the Sweet realm." Ringer went on the Today show to respond to the jibes, and Macauley wrote a follow up article a few days later to defend his stance against the fatties. The dance world divided! Anorexia! Freedom of speech! Lycra!

Meanwhile I was just getting hungry. What the hell IS a sugarplum exactly, and how do I get my hands on one? So I did a little research, and my darlings, I present it to you with much joy and holiday spirit.

SO: Sugarplums belong to the comfit family, a confection traditionally composed of tiny sugar-coated seeds. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the word sugarplum thusly: "A small round or oval sweetmeat, made of boiled sugared and variously flavoured and coloured; a comfit." The earliest mention of this particular food is 1668. The term also has another meaning "Something very pleasing or agreeable; esp. when given as a sop or bribe," which dates to 1608. According to the food historians, the word plum in Victorian times referred to raisins or dried currants, not plums as we think of them today.

And here is another reference:

"Sugarplums were an early form of boiled sweet. Not actually made from plums...they were nevertheless roughly the size and shape of plums, and often had little wire stalks' for suspending them from. They came in an assortment of colours and flavours, and frequently, like comfits, had an aniseed, caraway seed, etc. at their centre. The term was in vogue from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, but is now remembered largely thanks to the Sugarplum Fairy, a character in Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker ballet (1892.)"---An A-Z of Food & Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 329).

In the interests of experimentation, I plan to make sugarplums this weekend, and post the results. Email "Sugarplum me, lady" to dorisplum@gmail.com to receive your very own sugarplum, boxed and delivered. I might even put a ribbon on it, if you're lucky.

Much love and many kisses, Doris.