Pez??? Are you collecting Pez now???

We all tend to overlook Pez displays at newstands and seven-elevens and whatnot unless we are nerd fanatical completist collector types, and maybe even then, but because of a Wile E. Coyote Pez Candy Hander given to me yesterday by my mother-in-law (well, it was given to both me and the husband but I have since claimed sole ownership) I am feeling a weird need to obsess over Pez dispensers and think sorowfully of those spring-loaded, candy-spewing easter lambs I have casually discarded over the years.

We are all aware that Pez candy itself, improbably disgusting, has come in the unvarying form of chalky, stale-tasting pellets served from the necks of plastic creature-shaped dispensers for decades. But who would have thought a Wile E. Coyote battery-operated Candy Hander, bought at a Washington state dollar store, would suddenly create a latent fascination with Pez devices in an unsuspecting 29-year-old in 2001? Such I suspect the malady of collecting Pez dispensers creeps upon an unwary collector somewhere in this country every day.

I have no idea if this is just a faddish thing with me, or if my own home will someday be a shrine to Pez memorabilia notorious throughout thousands of Internet Pez communities. Probably the former. In fact this fad may fade before I purchase a sole Pez device due to my distain for Pez candy itself, which always tastes stale and stepped on, as though it has been under the floor mat of a Dodge Dart since 1979.

None of this gets in the way of the coolness of the Pez dispensers themselves, particularly these non-standard battery-operated Candy Handers which take us a long way from yanking the dusty, bitter pills from the spring-loaded necks of Charlie Browns and Fozzie Bears.

You know what's strange? Although, as you might guess, there are literally thousands of Web sites devoted to the minutae of collectling the dispensers of the devilishly disgusting Pez candy, none of them are in any way interesting! So I will forgo my usual spate of Web links and provide you with the only one that was in any way entertaining, a brief overview of the Dark Side of Pez. This site also contains angry letters. Why don't you tiny dog readers send more like them?

I have come to the definite conclusion that the subject of Pez is open for further uncertainty.

Hey, peeps. Send mail to mail@tiny-dog.com.