Raise your hand if you’ve ever eaten a cookie with the little silver balls like this one…
OK, now raise your hand if you’ve ever died from eating a cookie with the little silver balls on it? Anyone?
Apparently, here in California, dying because of eating these edible decorations is a concern.
Growing up (in CA) we decorated our cookies and cakes using dragées (the fancy French word for the silver balls). They were my favorite part of decorating.
I will be attending a cookie swap party in a couple of weeks so this afternoon I dug out my sugar cookie recipe and thought about what shapes and decorations I would use for this batch. Since the cookie party sounds fancy I thought it would be fun to add some dragées to dress up the cookies a bit.
I found bottles of them for sale online but every site stated that they would not ship to California. After further research I found that there was a lawsuit filed in CA about 6 years ago to stop the sale of these little silver balls for “the public good”. Ironically, there has never been a death linked to the little silver balls. The other 49 states still sell them as “decoration only” while in Europe they are classified as a “food item”. Certainly most of Europe is healthier than we are so my question is…Are you kidding me? So millions and millions of cigarette-related deaths without a ban on sales vs. zero dragée deaths with a ban on sales. Yah, that makes perfect sense to me.
So here is my dilemma…I could order them and have them sent to a friend out of state or have a friend purchase them and send them to me, but I would essentially be breaking the law. I even went on ebay thinking that individual sellers wouldn’t worry about this kind of thing, but I was wrong. This statement even accompanied one of the dragée listings
If you buy these dragees and have a California address we'll file a dispute for malicious buying
Wow! That’s hard core. Even if I was able to get a hold of some of this contraband, I am a little bit worried about the other cookie party goers. Would one of them call the cops on me? Would I be charged with intent to distribute an illegal substance?
I wanted to make my cookies pretty, but whatever, that’s not really the point anymore. I’m so appalled that, in California’s current state of dysfunction, this would even be an issue. Talk about not making sense!
That is sad! Wouldn't it be nice if that lawyer found a cause that truly needed championing?? He could actually do some good instead of just being a Grinch!!
ReplyDeleteCrazy!
ReplyDeleteIsn't it good to know how your tax dollars are spent??
ReplyDeleteInsane.
I honestly can't get past how many times you said "little silver balls." Hee Hee Hee.
ReplyDeleteYou don't need to be that fancy for us. And, no, I won't report you!
Malicious buying! That sounds very harmful.
ReplyDeleteJLo says you don't need to be that fancy, but au contraire, you know this thing is going to be a huge fancy shingdig, what with everyone trying to make their cookies better than everyone else's!
I'm just bitter because I didn't get invited.
Why don't you make bear poops?
I'm going to be there and I'm totally going to rat you out!!
ReplyDeleteLisa
What's the objection California has to the dragees? Has anyone told you?
ReplyDeleteI hate those balls.
ReplyDeleteHowever I see no reason why my own personal hatred of those balls should be the cause to ban little silver balls or any other type of balls for that matter.
I don't know what this lawyer is on about, and anyway, I thought that they liked balls in the bay area.
Of course no where does it say that it is illegal to buy the balls in California, every commerical bakery is just too scared to sell the balls or use the balls for fear of being sued over their balls.
So I think whilst you may be having fun plotting your "illegal" ball decoration, it is not technically illegal to decorate with balls or to even buy balls, so you will not get arrested over balls.
You are, however, opening yourself up to a lawsuit, where one of the party attendees or a person who feeds their self or others your baked goods (which have been topped with your balls)can make the same legal claim as that ball-less bay area lawyer.
I say, if you want balls, then get balls!
Are you serious? That is CRAZINESS! I will buy you some. I will aide you in your illegal activities! : )
ReplyDeleteI don't think you should do it because if you do, I would have to hunt you down and start yelling, "Citizen's Arrest! Citizen's Arrest!" and honestly I'm very busy I just don't have the time to chase you down.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I'll be linking to this post next Monday (not tomorrow).
ReplyDelete