Circle of (candy) life

Okay, I confess I'm an antique virgin... uh, let me rephrase that, I'm a virgin when it comes to antique collecting. Never done it, never cared to. But I did case the show last weekend at the Inn of the Ozarks - and now I almost get it. ...I still wouldn't pay $2500 for an old lamp, but I did come across some interesting stuff. ...Stuff that probably gets shunned by people who know what's what in the biz, but hey, that's how I roll. ...Check this out:

A lamp made out of a meat grinder and a colander got my roaring approval. So the pieces themselves belong in a kitchen and therefore aren't exactly guy stuff, unless you're Bobby Flay, but screwing them together and running electricity to the mismatched results is Frankensteiningly priceless. Guy stuff at its ultimate best. ...and it was only twenty-eight bucks. That was right up there with the end table made out of a tractor grille.

Now that Thanksgiving's almost over, we can start thinking about recycling candy for next Halloween. First opportunity for building up a supply is the Christmas Parade on Dec. 2 at 6. That's when I pretend I'm one of the parents helping their kids collect candy off the street ... and I don't think I'm the only one who does this. I swear I recognized candy I gave out in Halloween 2010 being thrown out of cars in the May Arts parade. ...It's part of the hard candy circle of life, right?

And you can be in my circle of life by emailing oliverdeplace@hotmail.com, or posting on my seldom-visited Facebook page.