Don't Taste This Rainbow

Chocolate Skittles. Have you seen this? Moreover, have you tasted this? I'm not a fan.

Today, Rucker, one of our assistant baseball coaches, let me sample this not-so-tasty delight. I did not like it at all.

I'm a Skittles fan. Seriously. It's like a party in my mouth. I literally "Taste The Rainbow." I even have my own obsessive compulsive system of eating them. I pour the whole bag out, separate them in to color groups, then I make ever group an even number. I then proceed to eat the castaways from least to favorite color, making sure to donate the yellows to the less fortunate, or just throw them away. Next, I eat each color group by two, from least to favorite color as well. I know, I know. It's crazy. But I've done it since I can remember.

So, today when Rucker introduced me to the Chocolate Skittles, I thought, "This could be interesting." Readers, let me inform you, there is no such thing as a chocolate rainbow: a) they all taste the same and b) the aftertaste is horrible. Stay away.

Feel free to taste the fruity rainbow. Not the chocolate one. I don't even think this would please chocolate lovers.

Transition:

When I was in high school, we had a competition called "Colonel Classics." It's where every class (sophomore, juniors, seniors - freshman got to help behind the scenes) got together every year and wrote their own 30-45 minute play, adding music and dancing to it. It was a big production. Really. Huge competiton. The winner got bragging rights for the next year.

Anyway, my junior year, our play was called "Taste The Rainbow". (We always had crazy titles. My sophomore year was called "Smack: The Mouse Does Motown" and my senior year was "Wee Bee Buggin'".) It was about an island, Rainbow Island, on which one side was inhabited by the Color People and the other side was "The Dark Side" where the prince with no color lived with his motley crew.

Every year, the Color People held a Rainbow Festival to "present the colors" for the rainbow to appear. Color crystals were dropped into a pot (i.e. the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow) and after a cute little step/dance routine from the Prism Patrol (holders of the crystals)...ta-da...the rainbow appears. (Yes, I was the white girl with rhythm, stepping on the prism patrol.)

Anyway, so the Dark Prince devises a plan to steal the crystals so the Color People can know what it is like to live with no color. Long story short, crystal are stolen, crystals are found, Dark Prince learns how to "feel emotions" and they live happily ever after.

During our finally, we threw out bags of Skittles. Fun times. Sometimes I miss those days.

Anyway, all the Skittles talk made me think of that. And all the talk of rainbows made me think of my favorite movie and favorite song, "Somewhere Over The Rainbow," from The Wizard Of Oz."

I thought I'd share my favorite renditions of the song. Starting with American Idol's Katherine McPhee.

And finally, the original...Judy Garland