Friday watch the hands wind down

My wife got a package in the mail today from her super-cool friend Klah. Inside the box were a whole lotta Otter Pops, of the frozen confectionary and power pop varieties, as shown in the photo above. (The bag of garlic cloves near the top did not come in the package, but are instead our way of gearing up for the coming vampire season, despite the aversion for Allium sativum that I share with the children of the night.)

I didn't realize they even made Otter Pops anymore, and had wrongfully assumed they had gone the way of Goofy Grape, Lefty Lemon, and the rest of the Funny Face fruit drink clan, assumed into childhood nostalgia heaven. Even though I know deep down that there really isn't any chemical difference between the more staid Fla-Vor-Ice family of products and Otter Pops, a frozen stick of water, high fructose corn syrup, and artificial colors and flavors tastes decidedly better when presented by goofy cartoon mustelids named Louie Bloo Raspberry or Sir Issac Lime.

The musical Otterpops -- not to be confused with Freezepop or The Horrorpops -- are pretty sweet, too. 2001's Earth Science Club EP, the now-defunct outfit's sole release, features four tracks of slower tempo femvox powerpop that gave me ultra-lucid flashbacks to my college-radio listening days in the late 80's and early 90's.

The Otterpops - Trotsky - In hindsight, the Fourth International could have used more accordion playing and fewer icepicks in the ear. (The same could be said about the past three family reunions I attended.)