Bacon fascination

We wrap it around fruit and veggies. We adorn burgers with it. We eat it as a side dish – or a main dish.

It’s the so-called candy of meat.

Bacon is the craze.

In the last week, I’ve come across several bacony things.

First, I stumbled across bacon roses on Facebook.

These are real, edible bacon roses. Here are step-by-step directions for making said roses, if you so desire (Valentine’s Day is just around the corner).

Then, I saw this picture on Twitter.

Bacon wrapped hotdogs. In case you can’t prepare your own bacon wrapped hotdogs, they now come prepared and packaged.

Then, while checking my email, I saw a story about bacon milkshakes.

Jack in the Box has created a bacon shake. No real bacon is used, though. Just bacon flavored syrup.

And, finally, I heard about OMSI After Dark’s Bridgetown Baconfest. OMSI-goers will discuss bridges and eat bacon.

All of this leaves me with one question: What’s with the bacon fascination?

I must admit, I don’t eat bacon. I don’t eat any pork, or beef, for that matter.

But even before I stopped eating most meat when I was 12 years old, I wasn’t a bacon-crazed kid.

A Google search for “bacon” yielded these ridiculous bacon inventions.

Bacon gumballs for those who were “told as a kid not to blow bubbles with your breakfast meat.”

Bacon soap because why wouldn’t you want to smell like bacon all day long?

The list goes on and on.

I will probably be forever perplexed by the bacon fascination.

But I would like to point out one thing: The same week I was being bombarded by bacon merchandise, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued its latest report.

The focus: Nine in 10 U.S. adults eat too much sodium every day.

Coincidence?