Sing Along Snacks: Lollipop Double Feature

It's never too early or too late for a snack, so crank up that volume on your computer.

There's just something about summer that puts one in the mood for fluff and nonsense. Behold, a lollipop double feature:

Millie Small sings My Boy Lollipop from 1964.

If that's not goofy enough for you, travel on back to 1958 with The Chordettes and Lollipop, follow the bouncing ball style, on the Andy Williams show.

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 23

a weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food

• Chocolate magic (right) is an Alice in Wonderland take on sweets.

• With Easter coming up, we have eggs on the brain. The continuing popularity of the urban chicken trend and other city farm pursuits has prompted a new agrarian product line from Williams-Sonoma that includes stylish chicken coops, as well as DIY cheese kits and shitake mushroom-growing logs.

• Backyard chickens have resulted in an egg surplus for some: "When the whole coop starts laying, she said, the supply of eggs quickly turns into an “I Love Lucy”-style conveyor belt scene, bringing absurd, unmanageable excess." Quiche, custards and meringue — oh my!

• Not only can you eat eggs, but you can turn their shells into works of art.

• And not only can you eat marshmallow Peeps, you can turn them into art. Curious about where these crazy Easter icons come from? Take a peak behind the marshmallow curtain.

• A Pork Fairy approved app for iPad that walks cooks through making bacon, pancetta and more: The Better Bacon Book.

• Good coverage on the "Eat it to Save it" argument for conservation: "Are we willing to make complex and multi-layered choices to respectfully protect something so it continues to survive and even thrive?"

• Daredevil eating in Tokyo will get even more exciting as regulations on who can serve fugu ease. "I don't want people to forget that you can actually die from eating blowfish...I feel the government's awareness of this has diminished."

Sing Along Snacks: Candy Man

It's never too early or too late for a snack, so crank up that volume on your computer.

With all that sticky-sweet Valentine's Day candy now on sale, our snack gets a sugar kick. No one does it better than The Candy Man, Willy Wonka.

"The candyman can cause he mixes it with love and makes the world taste good"