Alan Ilagan

I’m not one of those “Buy Local!” self-righteous preachers who avoids the mainstream chains at all costs (unless we’re talking clothing), but once in a  while I’ll find a local business that delivers something not offered anywhere else. The other day I found myself on New Scotland Avenue, where I haven’t been in quite some time, and I saw the storefront for Isn’t It Sweet – (my special superpower is finding a soft-serve ice cream joint out of the corner of my eye no matter how fast Andy is driving.)

It was lunch time so I asked him to pull over. The sun was shining and it was the perfect day for a twist. I entered the tiny store and was immediately captivated by all the chocolate. Packages of peanut butter and chocolate frogs caught my eye, followed by chocolate-covered everything. As I made my way to the back, more towering confections of chocolate – merry-go-rounds among other whimsical treats – surrounded me, delightful both in their rich, sweet aroma and tradition-defying design.

Behind the register, an extensive ice cream and milkshake list dangled temptation before my eyes, and the only way I’ve ever dealt with temptation is to yield to it. (Thank you Oscar Wilde.) Over forty different flavors – how is one supposed to choose?

A friendly gentleman pointed out the ice cream cakes in a glass-fronted freezer behind me now, as well as more chocolate-covered goodies, battering away at my will-power and presenting too many opportunities for indulgent behavior. Before my eyes could rest on the listing for Boston Shakes (which would have definitively destroyed any remaining discipline), I ordered a small twist cone in one final self-preserving effort that left me drained of all strength.

I picked up a pair of chocolate frogs for Andy and made a hasty retreat out of that gloriously sinful chocolate factory. I don’t know how I escaped with the same waist size, but I did it. And now I can’t wait to go back.

For the strong among you, Isn’t It Sweet is located at 575 New Scotland Avenue. Go in at your own swimsuit-season peril.

Ordinary people waited till life disclosed to them its secrets, but to the few, to the elect, the mysteries of life were revealed before the veil was drawn away. Sometimes this was the effect of art, and chiefly of the art of literature, which dealt immediately with the passions and the intellect. But now and then a complex personality took the place and assumed the office of art; was indeed, in its way, a real work of art, Life having its elaborate masterpieces, just as poetry has, or sculpture, or painting.

– Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

Even now I cannot help feeling that it is a mistake to think that the passion one feels in creation is ever really shown in the work one creates. Art is always more abstract than we fancy. Form and colour tell us of form and colour – that is all. It often seems to me that art conceals the artist far more completely than it ever reveals him.

– Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

You do anything in the world to gain a reputation. As soon as you have one, you seem to want to throw it away. It is silly of you, for there is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.

– Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

He used to wonder at the shallow psychology of those who conceive the Ego in man as a thing simple, permanent, reliable, and of one essence. To him, man was a being with myriad lives and myriad sensations, a complex multiform creature that bore within itself strange legacies of thought and passion, and whose very flesh was tainted with the monstrous maladies of the dead.

– Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

…you will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you have never had the courage to commit. – Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray