ode to the cubyrop

When Tee introduced me to a candy called Cubyrop [pronounced "cube-eeee-rop", like hop] in 9th grade or so, I thought that name was extremely cool. I loved it so much that I told her I would name my future child that. I can even nickname my child Cuby! Boy, girl, or something else- it wouldn’t matter because Cubyrop is such an uncommon name for anything. All them consonants making your mouth move every which way when saying it. So fun to say!

The hard candy is shaped as a little solid cube, and it comes in small packages of two cubes each. Colors galore. Red, orange, yellow, white/clearish, green. She buys them at Sunset Super, Pacific Super, Ranch 99- basically anywhere that sells pan-Asian groceries and food products. As someone whose parents refused to buy or feed us sweets, and never allowed my sisters and me to roam around the candy aisle in grocery stores, I've never been exposed to such a candy with such a strange name. I don’t think I’ve even tried a Cubyrop, but that name.. sooooo coooool.

When Tee introduced me to Cubyrop candy and when I told her I'm naming my future child that, she laughed at me like I was insane. Cubyrop would get ridiculed and have a terrible horrific DISASTEROUS childhood. Better to have a regular name and save the poor child from embarrassment.

Of course, society's chokehold on anything different = unacceptable still strangles our thoughts. Everyone always says they like change and individuality, but sometimes they don’t follow through. We try so hard to step out of the mainstream by trend setting, finding new music not heard on the radio, eating eclectic foods, etc, etc. However, it appears that there is only so much we can do differently ‘til we’re reminded of fast food chains, media everything, and top 40’s music. And don’t forget name calling.

Tee wins. I probably won’t ever name my future child Cubyrop. Maybe something less extremely cool. Perhaps there’s a reason why a Chinese candy would make them sound different to English speakers with the funky name. To draw interest into a product from a country that is competing for consumers and are hungry for money. It apparently works, since Tee continually buys it. Though I’m not encouraged to name a person Cubyrop, I can certainly name something as unreal as a blog Cubyrop!

SOOOOOO, this new blog of mine is dedicated to Cubyrop in hopes to express strange ideas and new experiences.