1830 Syrup and Down

I suppose we all have our priorities. And what seems like a big deal to us may seem totally ridiculous to someone else. Why else would there be Beanie Baby crazes? Or Pogs? But sometimes I read about something in the news and I scratch my head.
Like the story I heard from Quebec. Apparently thieves made off with more than a million pounds of Maple Syrup. I'm not sure what that works out to in Imperial gallons, or kilos for that matter. But what did matter was what the Quebec producers thought about it. The maple syrup was stored in a rural warehouse as part of a "strategic reserve". That's right, I said strategic reserve. Like the U.S. is known to do with oil. The "syr" is syrup is short for "serious" in Quebec.
The thieves were clever. They didn't just steal the barrels of syrup. They emptied them. When discovered, the barrels were still there, but nothing was inside. Which, you know, means nobody had checked the warehouse for a while. Cause moving syrup is as slow as molasses. Either the thieves had a lot of time on their sticky fingers, or someone had a giant microwave handy.
"Obviously those people stole the syrup to sell it somewhere," said industry spokeswoman Anne-Marie Granger Godbout, "It will be hard for the honest processors to compete with stolen product."
Puts a whole new spin on the term hot syrup doesn't it?
It will affect the price for sure now. 30 million dollar strategic reserve or no. But there's one good thing. The syr-ups and downs of the market will finally answer the question, what is Mrs. Butter-worth?
If I were the Quebec police, I'd be staking out the honey manufacturers.
Or the hotcake warehouse.
America, ya gotta love it.