You’re only human. You live once and life is wonderful, so eat the damned red velvet cupcake. ~ Emma Stone

A cupcake should never cost more than a dollar!

Ok, I’ll make a concession to capitalism and say fine, let the cupcake maker make their money and charge four dollars, to adults. But it should never cost more than a dollar for a kid. Same with cookies, and yes I even mean big cookies. If that cookie or cupcake is massive and super fancy, ok two dollars for a kid. I mean seriously, what kind of world is it, where a little kid earns a dollar and can’t walk into a bakery or a store and buy a cookie or a cupcake.

Where is this coming from you might ask? Tomorrow is my birthday and I love cupcakes. So I bought the above pictured and highly tasty red velvet cupcake and it was cheap, only four dollars. But while I was buying that cupcake I thought damn, little kids can no longer have that simple dollar experience I loved as a kid. I absolutely loved going into the Jersey Bakery in Hudson, NY and buying a dollar cupcake, buttercream frosting and sprinkles on every one. The same with a slice of pizza across the street at the Pizza Pit, the greatest pizza place ever to exist.

Sure, a lot of it is that I’m old and inflation is a real thing, but when I hear about kids getting $20 dollars from the tooth fairy it’s a bit shocking. So I guess a kid could buy their own $4 cupcake with their tooth fairy money. And even recognizing the reality of inflation, what am I really saying? Simply this, childhood is so important, so fleeting and our adult lives are these anxiety infused mad dashes to inevitable insanity. So we need to protect children and their innocence, imagination and naivete as long as possible. And sure, I long to get a piece of that back myself, kind of the reason I love cupcakes, a couple of minutes of reliving those Jersey Bakery childhood moments.

So my friends, tonight I am asking you all for a very special birthday gift in celebration of my 60th birthday. Do something that makes a kid see magic. Take them to their first movie, give them their first taste of buttercream frosting, take them to a major league ballgame, take them on a great hike to a waterfall. Buy them a really cool toy for absolutely no reason, have a dance party with them or read them a story and do all the voices and add in a bunch of sound effects. Simply make some magic for a kid. The really cool thing, is while it’s my present, it’s a bigger one for them and something that will bring you and me a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane