Why everyone's talking about "Squid Game" and dalgona

• One plot element involves a toffee-style candy called dalgona, made from melted sugar and baking soda — and that's why both the candy (often sold in lollipop form) and dalgona coffee have gone viral on TikTok. (You can make the candy in under 10 minutes, per a hot-off-the-press NYT recipe.)
• The third episode of "Squid Game" is "all about ppopgi," a game in which kids use needles to try to pick up shapes stamped into brittle dalgona, the Times reports.

Why it matters: The show — with its creepy-looking masked guards whose red costumes are likely to be omnipresent this Halloween — points to uncomfortable socioeconomic truths that resonate in many societies, the Times explains.

• "Squid Games" has "tapped a sense familiar to people in the United States, Western Europe and other places, that prosperity in nominally rich countries has become increasingly difficult to achieve, as wealth disparities widen and home prices rise past affordable levels."

• It's "now the top-ranked show in the United States on Netflix and is on its way to becoming one of the most-watched shows in the streaming service’s history," per the Times.