SILK GOWNS and sticky treats

[a_reader2003]

No: HPFGUIDX 79456

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "a_reader2003" 
<carolynwhite2 at a...> wrote:
> (snip) a point of curiosity: why would two 
> adults want to chew such a lot of bubblegum ?? Ok, they have been 
> tortured, and are not in their right minds, but it seems a curious 
> sort of sweet for them to choose. DD likes his sweets, but I can't 
> remember any other incidence of adult wizards eating them in any 
> quantity...
> 
> (snip) Is there more to Droobles gum than we have been told, apart 
from the possibility that it has been tampered with in some way ? 
Perhaps it is a recognised soft drug in the WW, routinely given to 
mental patients to keep them quiet and easy to handle. It would fit 
with the somewhat gormless image that gum-chewing tends to convey.

Further comment from CW:

The point of my post was really that it was a bit odd for adults to 
monotonously chew so much gum (its a bit of a teenage rebel thing to 
my mind). But then Erin (79369 & 79381) said:

'Something about this message struck me... Dumbledore IS the only 
other adult who is shown as appreciating candy. Could this be a clue 
of some sort? Are we supposed to connct something about the 
Longbottoms to DD? ....It occurs to me in reading this that perhaps 
Dumbledore's being the only other adult interested in candy is 
significant. Maybe there is a clue to a connection here. Just what 
kind of connection it would be I'm not certain... but I'm sure 
everyone who's in favor of the ColdheartedSpymaster!Dumbledore (MAGIC 
DISHWASHER) theory will want to take note.

And Entropy added (79392): 'Don't forget: the password to 
Dumbledore's office is always some kind of candy or sweet! (lemon 
drops, sherbet, etc.) In fact, Harry guesses correctly at one point 
(not sure which book!) just by naming all of the sweets he can think 
of.'

Then Brief Chronicles commented (79396): Has anyone ever read the 
book Sophie's World (snip) ..this post reminded me of one of the key 
messages of the book: Children are the best philosophers. 
(snip)...children are still capable of really, truly thinking 
anything is possible. I sort of view DD this way, partially because 
of his love of children and candy, etc. I wonder if the fact that DD 
and the Longbottoms *are* the only adults to have been put 
together with sweets shows that these people are especially wise and 
have extraordinary knowledge. It would certainly go along with the 
theory that the Longbottoms are being kept insane because they are a 
real threat to the DEs.

Back to me (CW): 

Out of curiosity, on a recent re-read through the series I have been 
keeping a list of the sweets and treats mentioned in the books, and 
so far (up to mid-way through GoF), there have been a quite 
extraordinary number: 

Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans; Droobles Best Blowing Gum; 
Chocolate Frogs; Pumpkin Pasties; Cauldron Cakes: Liquorice wands: 
Fudge flies; Acid pops; Cockroach clusters; Pepper imps; Chocoballs; 
Sugar quills; Sherbert balls; Tooth-flossing stringmints; Blood-
flavoured lollipops; Exploding bon-bons; Jelly slugs; Ice mice; 
Peppermint toads; ton-tongue toffees; Honeydukes chocolate

Quite a few of them also either play a part in the plots (eg the gum, 
the toffees, the chocolate frogs, the bars of choc), or are 
explicitly mentioned as part of a character's back history (Bertie 
Bott's beans, acid pops) as well, so maybe there is much more to them 
than simply JKR having some fun with WW food, as I first thought.