What is it with

What is it with foreigners and candy?

Yesterday on the train a middle-aged Japanese woman, atypically fat and garishly dressed, sat next to me. My first thought upon seeing her unconventional appearance was "Oh, no, she's going to try to talk to me."

I was spared that torture, but as she rose to disembark a few stops down the line, she pressed some throat lozenge candies into my hand and moved toward the door. I started to protest, but decided it was easier just to thank her.

"You're not going to eat them, are you?" Tod asked later. Of course I am not. Mom taught me not to take candy from strangers.

When we went to dinner last night, we paid, donned our coats and left the restaurant. As we turned from the door, the waitress burst out behind us. "Excuse me!" she called to us as she handed us...two lollipops. "Ame. Candy." she beamed.

So I'm not sure what makes us look like we welcome candy. Perhaps foreigners have a repuation I'm not aware of. But I wonder, does that waitress qualify as a stranger? The lollipop is appealing.