Jarm69, Author at Crazy & Co.

Candy Floss Questions, FAQ’s

11 July 2021

Over the years we have come across a multitude of questions about candy floss. Some are quite sensible, others belong in a joke book. We are going to look at, and try to answer some of our favourites.

Can Dogs Eat Candy Floss

Candy floss in itself isn’t harmful to a dog. It is basically pure sugar. However it will lead to a blood sugar spike, then subsequent drop, which isn’t the best thing for your pet. Because most breeds tend to be smaller than humans this will be more pronounced, and because dogs aren’t used to a sugar intake that high it amplifies the effect. So we wouldn’t recommend giving them more than a pinch of floss.

Who Invented Candy Floss

A dentist. No really, it was a dentist. To be fair, he wasn’t just a dentist. He was a political activist, invented a method to purify Nashville’s water supply, wrote children’s books and invented a lard substitute. William J Morrison really was a dentist. He didn’t invent candy floss per se. Cooks had been making spun sugar for hundreds of years. What he did invent was the electric candy floss machine. Or as he called it then fairy floss. This enables large quantities of floss to be made very quickly. Previously making spun sugar was a tedious affair, suitable for topping small cakes and the like.

He debuted his machine in 1904 at the St Louis World Fair. It was an instant success, he sold 68,655 boxes of the stuff at $0.25 a pop. That’s the equivalent of selling $500,000 worth allowing for inflation.

Why Do Some People Call It Cotton Candy

If you call it cotton candy you are most probably from North America. Which is a little strange, because they originally called it Fairy Floss. Sometime after thew switched to Cotton Candy. The Australians and New Zealanders still refer to it as Fairy Floss. Us Brits Candy Floss, The South Africans Tooth Floss, though the Afrikaners call it Spookasem (Ghosts Breath). The French barbe a papa (Daddy’s Beard), Dutch Suikerspin (Sugar Spider), and the Persians Pashmak (Wool Like).

So the name all depends on where you come from.

Is Candy Floss Bad For You

We once read that there are no poisonous substances, just poisonous doses. For instance, water is widely regarded as one of the healthiest things you can partake of. However drink too much and you die. Candy Floss is the same, sugar, pretty much all it is made of, other than a minute trace of colouring. Is one of the basic requirements for life. No sugar in your body and you end up dead. So a little candy floss won’t do you any harm. If you eat nothing but floss, then you will become really fat, lose most of your teeth, and can trigger sugar diabetes. So our tip is everything in moderation.

Can I make Candy Floss At Home

You certainly can, chefs have been making it for hundreds of years. A simple recipe is available here. You can also buy cheap little electric machines that make it in the same way as the commercial machines do. Truth be told they are not very good, but they do work well enough for a kids party or similar.

Does Candy Floss Go Off

Not really. Bacteria, which is usually responsible for food spoiling, doesn’t like sugar rich environments. This is why throughout history sugar has been used to preserve food. You can’t get much more sugar rich than candy floss. Additionally the heat generated to make the floss, around 186 Celsius. Makes sure that the floss is pretty much sterile as it is being made.

However, what does happen, is that the floss gradually absorbs moisture. This leads to it shrinking back into its sugar form, so after a while you end up with a coloured sugar lump instead of a bag of floss. Happily popping it in the freezer means it will last months. The best bit is, you can eat it straight from the freezer as it doesn’t actually freeze. The cold air doesn’t contain moisture so it extends the life.

Is Candy Floss Halal

It can be. The ingredients are sugar, and basic colouring flavourings. Now sugar is just pure sugar so no problems there. The flavourings and colouring depends on what exactly is used. Red colour tends to contain the powdered shell of a species of beetle. Called cochineal it is a species native to North America. Alternatives are available, but if you want to be 100% sure then just eat white candy floss. That is made with nothing but sugar, and Silver Spoon brand is both halal and kosher.

Where Do I Buy Candy Floss Near Me

Any local funfair will sell floss. Many supermarkets have small tubs available. Or there are mail order sellers.

How Is Candy Floss Made

A band of happy pixies live in the bottom of the machine, merrily knitting the sugar in to candy floss and pushing it through the little holes in the centre of the machine for the operator to collect with a stick.

Of course some people claim there is a scientific explanation, personally we like the one above, but if you are one of those boring grown ups who think magic isn’t real, here is an alternative explanation.

The sugar mixture is poured into a rotating drum. The high speed of the drum forces the mixture against a wire mess around the perimeter. This mesh is heated to 186 degree celsius. This heat breaks the bonds of the constituent molecules (carbon, oxygen and hydrogen C12H22O11).

The hydrogen and oxygen atoms form molecules of water, which instantly evaporate due to the intense heat. This leaves only carbon behind, which burns and begins to caramelise the sugar.

As it caramelises the liquid sugar is forced through the tiny holes in the mesh and solidify as they meet cooler air. As this is happening thousands of times a second. You get a mass of candy floss composed of these filaments which are just 50 microns in diameter.

Why Is Candy Floss Pink

Actually it isn’t. Pure candy floss is white. The only ingredient is sugar. For other colours of candy floss you add a tiny amount of colouring. So it can be pink, blue, green, orange, yellow, purple and so on. It tends to come out as pastel colours, so you dont really get a deep red, it comes out pink.

Does Candy Floss Have Gelatin In

As a general rule no it does not. But, you would need to know the food colouring ingredients list used to change it’s colour. There are literally hundreds of different food colourings out there, so some may contain gelatin. To be absolutely safe, eat white candy floss, as this is entirely pure sugar.

What Goes Well With Candy Floss

Far and away the most popular is popcorn. The two can be combined on a single cart and are ideal for weddings, parties or events.

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Fun Story

Rebuilding Our Tuk Tuk Photo Booth

3 July 2021

The lockdown saw our tuk tuk photo booth being stood up for almost 18 months. Now, you might think that means 18 months less wear and tear right. Only what it actually meant was that it, along with some of the older vehicles, which were not the best constructed in the world, pretty much fell apart.

Our Indian Tuk Tuk photo booth had a few bubbles in the paint when Covid struck. By the time we were looking at using it again, the rust bubbles had turned into massive holes. In fact, at one point it looked like we might have to scrap it.

Plan Of Action

In the end, we decided that as we had time on our hands, with lockdown restrictions still keeping events pretty much closed, we would undertake a full nut and bolt restoration.

We completely stripped the vehicle down into its individual components. The steel that was badly corroded, we cut out completely, and replaced it with new. This was heavier gauge than the original steel work so hopefully would be more resilient to future problems.

After getting the shell to bare metal, and adding the new parts, we treated it with an anti rust wash, coated it in a zinc primer, then two coats of epoxy primer to seal it and hopefully stop it flash rusting whilst working on it.

The plastic trim etc was stripped to base using a chemical stripper, and all the individual brackets and smaller parts were shot blasted to bare metal.

Quality Construction

Cleaning it back to bare metal did create another issue. The original construction was what could only be described as utter crap. The panels were deformed, bent, had lumps in them where they had been welded to the frame. In short we had cleaned about a tonne of fibreglass filler off the panels, which had been used to ‘skim’ them creating a flat surface.

Luckily one of the team is quite handy with a tin of fille. Comes he claims from always owning clapped out vans. He spent a week refilling the panels and flattening them back to a nice shape.

Whilst this was being done, I nipped the seats and side panels into a local upholsterer to be recovered, and we ordered a replacement top cover.

Putting It Back Together

After assembling the bulk of the frame we had it ready for spraying. Unfortunately we couldn’t find a local spray shop that could fit it in anytime soon. So decided that we would do it, or more precisely, I would. In the past I have done plenty of priming. Even some base coating, but applying the lacquer always seems to end up with runs covering every surface.

To try and give myself a fighting chance I decided to treat myself to a new spray gun. After looking at a few of the more typical HVLP (high volume low pressure) which I had used in the past, I decided to try a nice looking LVLP (yup, Low Volume Low Pressure) system. I hadn’t used one before, but felt our compressor was a touch small for the high volume type gun. We settled on a BURISCH GTR500 LVLP from GTAir which I have to say, impressed me greatly.

Paint Colour Choices

We also looked at the paint we were going to use. Originally it had been covered in a white Pearl colour. It looked nice, but I was never happy with the amount of pearl effect. We spent a week looking at different pearls, and eventually settled on a pearl white from Specialist Paints of Sheffield. We have used their stuff before and always liked it. I also decided to try their 2K show lacquer.

In the event the gun worked like a dream. The Show Clear Coat went on like a layer of glass. The only run I ended up with was when I switched from vertical strokes to horizontal and neglected to twist the end of the spray gun to orient it correctly. That left a nice long run, but luckily in a part of the bodywork that is covered up.

The trim we covered in a pearlescent color from Ford called Panther Black. The rear bumper and number plates were finished in a fabulous yellow pearl, again from Specialist Paints.

It’s first outing was to a private party in London. The pearl effect was stunning in the sunlight, and the client was over the moon. So if you want a nearly new Tuk Tuk Photo booth get in touch.

Resources

GT Air Supplies

Specialist Paints Sheffield

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Fun Story

Racism and The Funfair Industry

29 June 2021

The George Flloyd affair brought racism to the forefront of the media last summer. The resultant riots around the world went way past any legitimate form of protest, looting and destroying shops doesn’t highlight racial equality in any meaningful way.

Now racism is quite wrong. There isn’t any viable argument you can make in its favour. There exists in this country at least, a great deal of legislation against it, as well as organisations dedicated to fighting it. I’m not claiming this solves the problem, but it is at least a step in the right direction.

The Funfair

Now, a curious thing is, that any reputable organisation, media outlet, website etc, wouldn’t dream of posting insulting content about a black person, a gay person, transgender etc. They do however feel quite comfortable in doing it about the funfair industry. I am going to look at a few examples of what we have happened across online, and in news print. Some are still viewable, others date back up to a dozen years or so. Still periods in time when it wouldn’t have been allowed about anyone else.

Firebox And Their Candy Floss Machine

This was an online gift supplier called Firebox

““Everyone loves candy floss. As far as naughty-but-nice nostalgic treats go, it’s right up there with toffee apples and giant gobstoppers. The trouble is getting your gob round a woolly mass of scrumptious spun sugar usually involves visiting the local fair. And trudging through puddles of diesel amidst swarms of screaming teenagers is about as much fun as riding the chariots after a hot dog supper.

That’s why you need to get spinning with our ingenious Candy Floss Maker. With this idiot-proof contraption you’ll be making funfair-style candy floss in minutes. Simply add regular granulated sugar and switch it on. That’s all there is to it. Well, almost.

As the machine heats up, the central head begins to spin, forcing liquid sugar through its tiny perforations. The instant the threads of sugar hit the air they cool and re-solidify, causing a web of sugary threads to develop in the dishwasher-friendly collection bowl. All you have to do is gather up the yummy wisps on your candy floss cone and get munching. The whole process is really rather wondrous.

The resultant candy floss tastes exactly the same as the woolly, melt in the mouth stuff you wolfed down as a kid. The only difference is you won’t have to blag 50p off your mum in order to watch some old hag with a face like a spat out toffee, drop fag ash in the bowl. Speaking of additional ingredients, a dash of food colouring is all you need to make pink, blue or whatever colour you fancy floss.”

Hmm, I wonder if we replaced the words old hag with gay man, or black man would it still have been allowed to be advertised?

Edinburgh News

A news outlet based in the lovely Scottish city of Edinburgh.

“I’ve lived in Marchmont for 25 years.
I use the Meadows pretty much everyday… going to work, going out, playing football, etc. and I’ve never had any bother, even when i’m staggering back from that amazing kebab shop on forrest road dribbling kebab sauce down my chin and onto my trainers whilst singing Bugsy Malone tunes to myself!!

However thats not say that the meadows are safe…A point was made in a previous post that mentions how attacks in the meadows seem to go up quite substantially whenever the “funfair” (more like Scumfair) is in town. I agree with that statement 100%!!

All that the fair does is attract teenage chav scum from nearby parts who do nothing but cause trouble and along with the fact the fair itself is run by a dubious bunch too!

Notice too how there always seems to be an increase in the number of car’s getting broken ito and houses getting burgled!! Coinsidence?? I think not!

Police patrols are quite regular in the meadows and i appluad thier efforts to get rid of vagrents, teenage drinkers and other menaces to socitey!

But yes, more CAN be done! Such as infrared CCTV being added to the area! Especially at the east end.

Anyway…when the fair is in town you best make sure your windows and doors are locked!!!!“

The atrocious grammar is the work of whatever higher form of life penned the complaint. Again, if we were to complain that a black group visiting the city increased the crime rate would it be viewed as acceptable reporting?

The ironic thing is, talking to a chief constable at one town we visited, he remarked that general low level crime tended to actually drop when the fair was in town, because, as he put it, the toerags are all too busy enjoying themselves at the fair to be out on the rob.

The Newcastle Hoppings Official Website

Now, like most showmen from the north East, I attended Newcastle Town Moor fair. Or the hoppings as the locals call it, all of my life.

I occasionally wondered why it was called the hoppings, but never really got around to finding out. Then recently I read the official website for the event, and they offer this explanation;

“Another idea stems from the clothing which the travellers wear-old, sack-like tops and pants, clothing often became infested with fleas from the animals they travelled with. People were often seen ‘jumping’ or ‘hopping’ about, itching from the bites they received.”

I have seen photos of showmen in the late 1880’s. What I noticed was their sartorial style was better than the modern era. Most wore three piece suits and hats. I haven’t actually come across an image of anyone wearing cloths, made from sacks.

Lack Of Socks

I suppose this one isn’t strictly racism, but it shows exactly how officialdom tends to view us. We had transported everything to Preston Park, near Stockton on Tees, for an upcoming event. As happened quite often, most of the guys were stood about just talking. Waiting for the site to be marked out as to what was going where.

Now out of the blue a police car turned up and a young officer got out. Perfectly polite to give him his due. He proceeded to tell us that a fairground worker had been found dead on the motorway. Claiming he had fallen from one of our vehicles. He wanted to know if anyone was missing a staff member. I asked how he could be certain it was a fairground worker.

“Oh it was obvious”, was his reply, “He wasn’t wearing any shoes or socks!”

Now, I looked down at everyone, and unsurprisingly we all had shoes on. I couldn’t swear to the socks without going around pulling up everyone’s trouser legs. But I am pretty certain we all had socks. This was in the days before the trousers rolled up and no socks look became fashionable.

As a side note, we don’t tend to carry staff members on the ride where they may be at risk of falling off. Though a few years later, a drugged up guy managed to worm his way into the centre of a ride. Went to sleep at Hartlepool carnival, and woke up the next day in Yorkshire. Where the ride had travelled to overnight.

Newbiggin-By-The-Sea

This is a small town on the Northumberland coast. Once an important port and coal mining town, now more of a tourist place.

We used to attend an annual one day event there. Quite a good one as it happens, well supported and a pleasant place to be.

Anyway, one year whilst setting up, I broke a small sign, easily fixable with sellotape. If you had sellotape that is. Which I didn’t. No probs, I gave a fiver to a member of staff and sent him to the local newsagents for some. He came back empty handed.

“What, they don’t sell sellotape?”

“Erm, I don’t know” was his reply.

“What do you mean you don’t know?”

“They won’t let me in!”

Turns out there a sign on the shop window stating no travellers, gypsies or funfair folk allowed in. I went marching back with my fiver only to have the elderly gentleman refuse to serve me on the grounds of he didn’t like having the fair in town for the day. I caused a bit of a fuss and a passing policeman popped in. The upshot was I was informed that if I didn’t vacate the premises, I would be arrested for breaching the peace, as it was the owners right to decide who he traded with.

I of course with my awkward head on asked the officer what would happen if I was to place a sign on my stall proclaiming we don’t serve black people.

“Well now sir, I don’t recommend that as it will land you in trouble, your not allowed to do things like that!”

“But surely officer you have just pointed out it would be my right to decide who I wanted to serve”

“Not if it discriminates against a particular group sir!”

Obviously not, unless of course it is funfair folk you are refusing to serve.

Banter

My favourite one, is when someone I have just met finds out I come from a fairground background and smiles as they ask “Oh yes I have seen a program on the TV, Big Fat Gypsy Wedding’ so I know how you people live.”

My favourite retort is “Oh yes I have seen a program on TV too, so I know I you people live, it’s called Shameless!

Ripon Nick

This last one I was actually dragged in to. During our annual visit to Stokesley show. A young lady suffered a sexual assault on the Saturday evening.

A few weeks later I received a call from a police detective asking if she could come and interview me. I explained that on that particular day I was setting off for an event in Ripon. Turns out she did her probationary period in the city so asked if I could meet her at the local nick. They were interviewing people to see if they could gain any leads on the Stokesley assault case. I agreed that after setting up I would wander down to Ripon police station.

As I walked in I was directed to her temporary office, to find a stunningly attractive female detective. I introduced myself and she replied “Nice to meet you, you are free to go.” WTF, what about the interview? Turns out they weren’t actually interviewing people, they had a description of the attacker, and if you matched it you would be arrested. Hmmn, out of interest I asked how they would go about tracing the probably 50,000 people that would have visited Stokesley for the Saturday of the event.

Seems they didn’t need to, although there was about 50,000 visitors to the town, and a local population of about 5,000 locals, the suspect pool consisted entirely of the roughly 100 showmen in attendance.

What they didn’t seem to realise was that Saturday evening was the busiest part of the three day event. No showman was going to be absent from his equipment attacking young ladies, when he needed the income. Additionally anyone being absent at that time, would have had the rest of the fair out trying to discover what serious tragedy had befallen him to leave his attractions closed at the busy time, so most of the fair would have been non operational.

I pointed this out and demanded to know why we were the only suspects. “Just following orders”.

Yeah, wasn’t that the excuse the Nazi’s used when they dropped the Zyklon B pellets down the chute.

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Catering, Event Planning, Fun Story, General

Crazy Catering Units From Around The World

25 June 2021

At one time, catering units, be they on the fairgrounds or at private events, tended to be basically a box. Nowadays however there are some really crazy catering units available, so that not only are you getting great food, you also get a centrepiece for your event.

We are going to take a look at some of the craziness out there, ranging from pizza’s being dispensed by fire engines, to something that looks like its driven straight off the set of Mad Max.

MAXImus MiniMUS

This is definitely one of our favourites. Resembling some post apocalyptic street food vendor that wouldn’t look out of placing serving a burger to Mad Max himself. Build to resemble a pig, with a snout and ears, it was built in 2009 for Kurt Beecher Dammeier, it took its name from the two ranges of food it served, one with a heavy sauce (MAXImus) and a lighter range (MiniMUS). Sadly from what we can see it appears to have closed down in 2017

Baby’s Badass Burgers

We love this concept, though with the way things seem to be going we are surprised it hasn’t been protested. Set up by an ex restaurateur and an event planner, this has a definite attractive lady vibe. With burger names such as Cover Girl, The Other Woman, She’s Smoking and The Good Wife, and Burger ‘Babes’ (attractive female serving staff), to spread the burger goodness. The company now has a number of franchised operations outside of it’s home of Los Angeles, so obviously it works well.

Snog Yoghurt

A natural frozen yoghurt dessert, sweetened with agave nectar and under 140 calories. What’s not to like. So when you need your first mobile store what immediately springs to mind. It’s obvious isn’t it, an ex London A.E.C. Routemaster bus. Built by a company specialising in luxury bus conversions, the original Snog bus opened in London’s Southbank in 2014.

Military Pizza Truck

Built into a 6 wheel drive, ex military truck, this is another candidate for catering in the Mad Max era. This one is kitted out as a pizza truck, but maintains it’s military colour scheme and feel. It’s also available for pretzels, popcorn and various other dessert options.

Space Shuttle Cafe

This one is an extreme conversion. TBH, I can’t see you getting this past the DVLA in this country. It is built to resemble the space shuttle, but it’s not a converted commercial vehicle as you would expect, no sir, this one is an actual Douglas DC-3 airplane fuselage, that has been fitted with running gear and an engine. It has a commercial kitchen and rest room built in.

Pizza Fire Engine

This is one of our favourites, so much so that we are actually carrying out a feasibility study to see if it’s something we can emulate for our own range of catering options. There are a number of versions plying their catering trade, including a couple of examples in good old Blighty. We particularly like the Company 77 effort, with a working water cannon (good for keeping the queue in order) and a photo booth built into the jump seat.

Airstream Catering Units

Originally built as caravans designed in America in the 1930’s. The sleek shape and highly polished aluminium finish is unmistakable. A number of companies make similar models, but Airstream is the oldest. For decades NASA used a modified Airstream trailer to transport astronauts to the launch pad. They have become increasingly popular for use as catering units both in the States and Europe.

Westport Flea Market Burger Van

Not strictly a burger van, this is more of a promotional item to advertise the Flea market Bar and Grill. But we included it just because of the sheer quirkiness, and the work that has gone into it.

Snowcat Burritos

If you happen to be skiing in the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, in Sierra Navada, and you are hungry. Then you are in luck, as they have a burrita stall built into an actual snowcat. Well, they actually have two, one serving burritos and the other Calzones. They are also planning to add churros with strawberries and cream.

Keep checking back as we will add more examples as we come across them.

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General

Maserati Quattroporte, Sometimes You Need To Treat Yourself

21 June 2021

Over the years I have owned some crap cars. I remember a little Nissan Cherry, it wasn’t actually mine, my dad bought it as a second car, but it was that clapped out that my mam wouldn’t travel in it, so I sort of got left to use it at will. It ended up being in a 6 car pile up near the Metro Centre in the North East, so that was that.

Gradually over time, as business got better I ended up with a Jaguar X-type estate. I loved that car, but Ian, one of our event managers blew the engine up when I lent him it to go to London to see his girlfriend. Funnily enough he also blew the engine up in our mini camper van, and one of the London taxi cabs.

Dream Car

Over the years I always had a hankering for a Maserati Quattroporte. I think it is one of the most beautiful saloon cars ever made. The fact that it is a true four door 5 seater makes it an ideal family car, and the 440HP engine, limited slip diff and active suspension means it can hold its head up with many a performance car.

Eventually my wife got sick of me nagging about wanting one, and I convinced her we could also hire it out as a wedding car, so eventually she gave in and we acquired a gun metal grey version with black and cream leather interior. It was the executive version, with massaging, heated, cooled rear seats that also reclined. A nice touch, but to be honest one I never took advantage of as I always drove.

I owned that car for three years and loved it as much at the end of them as I did at the beginning.

Now, my wife isn’t one to swap a car in that is running OK, so imagine my surprise when she announced one day, “I think you should go and look for a new Maserati”. I was worried she had suffered an unnoticed anurism or was having a breakdown but she seemed fine. Looking back I had just received my pilots licence, so I think now, it was me mentioning I fancied a share in a small Cessna aeroplane, that got her thinking once I swapped my car in, it was an excuse to put me off an aeroplane for a few years.

Quattroporte 2

I ended up speccing the new model Quattroporte in Nero black with full black leather interior. It seemed a good idea at the time. The colour is absolutely fabulous, deep black, with large flecks of colour. When the sun hits it, it looks sublime. Unfortunately you would need to be cleaning it 24/7 to keep it looking that way. I have spent hours washing and polishing it to a gleam. Withing 30 seconds of hitting the road it looks like its been neglected for months.

For anyone thinking of buying their dream car all I can say is do it. Mine is totally impractical. I have had it as low as 3 m.p.g. on twisty roads with my foot down. Heck it will pass anything on the road except a fuel station. Things like tyres and consumables are an arm and a leg. And last about half as long as any other car I have owned. It is so big it doesn’t fit in parking bays. My wife hates it. But I don’t care, once I get in, fire it up and push the sports mode button, the engine roars. Sounding like a symphony of angels, floor the accelerator and it pushes you back in your seat, and all is right with the world.

Maserati Quattroporte Wiki

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