Economy got you down? Try stuffing yourself full of candy

Conventional wisdom has lately maintained (echoing a theory first put forth by Leonard Lauder) that lipstick is recession-proof: that women will cut back on a lot of other stuff in a crappy economy but will keep buying lipstick for the little morale boost that's achieved by looking good. This week, The New York Times puts forth a parallel theory: that candy might be recession-proof, too. "The recession seems to have a sweet tooth," says the story, as "Americans, particularly adults, have been consuming growing volumes of candy, from Mary Janes and Tootsie Rolls to Gummy Bears and cheap chocolates." Among the possible reasons why: the sugar high; the nostalgic thoughts of better times; and the low price tag. Candy fared well during the Great Depression, it turns out, and many popular candy brands were actually born then: Snickers in 1930, Tootsie Pops in 1931, and Three Musketeers in 1932. Of course, there's a downside: Over the longer term, battling the recession with candy won't keep you looking quite as good as doing so with cosmetics. And if you try to combine the two ... well, then you're just putting lipstick on a pig.

—Posted by Tim Nudd