KitKat brickbat
Mr. Tidbit just noticed another way you can buy KitKats, the chocolate-covered-wafer candy bars. KitKat minis — little KitKat pieces — can now be purchased in a 2.2-ounce bag. Two things are of interest (at least to Mr. Tidbit) about that. Both are concerned with the fact that the bag is labeled "king size."
At first glance, what this appears to be — king-size minis — is an oxymoron, a self-contradictory term like jumbo shrimp and Microsoft Works. But it isn't a bag of minis that are very large. It is, instead, a very large bag of regular-size minis. (Note that "regular-size minis" is an oxymoron.) Mr. Tidbit can call these minis "regular-size" because the minis themselves aren't new. They were available already — in an 8-ounce bag.
The second point of interest to Mr. Tidbit is that the "king-size" 2.2-ounce bag of minis is much smaller than the 8-ounce, regular, bag. OK, the king-size bag is bigger than the regular KitKat bar, which is just 1.5 ounces.
For the record, there are also "snack-size" KitKats, which are bigger than minis but smaller than regular KitKats.
Coulda had a ...
If Mr. Tidbit were to say "juice bar," you might think he was speaking of one of those places where you can purchase a variety of smoothies made with beets, grass, kelp and the like. In fact, however, today when he says "juice bar" he means a nutritional cereal-type bar made with juice and marketed with the name of a popular brand of juice blends.
In the sense that it sounds both solid and liquid, this kind of "juice bar" might seem like another oxymoron. But the three new V8 "complete nutrition" bars from Campbell's (chocolate, chocolate peanut butter and oatmeal raisin) aren't all that juicy. The only juice in any of them is some sweet potato juice concentrate, and that together with dehydrated carrots constitutes the half a serving (¼ cup) of vegetables claimed on the box.
That said, each bar contains 10 grams of protein, 5 grams of fiber and a host of vitamins and minerals.
At one store, where the box of six 1.59-ounce Special K protein meal bars (nutritionally very similar but containing no juice) costs $7.99, the box of six 1.76-ounce V8 bars is $8.29.
Al Sicherman
