Analogy fail.
Bah! That just means the morphing of the definition of “bar” lags behind the morphing of the definition of “dial.” Reese’s is still a candy bar, as most Dopers so far agree in the poll.
And the head coach…wants no sissies…
And so he makes us all eat something he calls Rissy’s.*
To qualify as a candy bar you should be able to add “bar” to the name.
Snickers = Snickers bar
MilkyWay = MilkyWay bar
Twix = Twix bar
Reeses Peanutbutter Cup = Reeses Peanutbutter Cup bar?
Aw, hell no! What kind of messedup thinking is that?
Plus there actually was such a thing as a Reese’s Peanut Butter Bar. (I assume the “yes” votes here would simply say both the cup and the bar forms are candy bars. Which I do understand, if that’s not how I use the terms myself.)
Reese’s PBCs were introduced in 1928. The push button phone was introduced in 1963.
Reese’s PBCs has had a 35 year head start yet they’ve failed to “morph”, while the definition of candy bar already has?
Never mind the fact that the company that makes these things calls them PBCs not a candy bar.
Nooooooooooooooo!
One description of a “bar” would be a cylindrical extrusion of metal or other hard substance, similar to a “rod”; no specific length is given for what is too short to be a bar, so the PBC could be seen a being a short cross-section of a cylindrical bar, much like a Rolo is.
Or, viewed from the other side, one might think of sitting in a drinking establishment and infer that the word is just shorthand for “barstool”.
And maybe it’s just me, but it seems like the phrase “dial a phone” has been falling out of use lately anyway. It’s still used, but it doesn’t seem to be used as much.
a cylinder or a cylindrical section has parallel sides.
a PBC is conical or a conical section.
My phone has bars.
It’s candy, but it’s not a bar. It’s a cup. It’s also delicious.
My first cell phone was a candy bar style Nokia.
It would have been a lot more usable if it was a single piece and not shaped like hockey pucks.
Because to some people (myself included) the term ‘candy bar’ has moved beyond the definition of the two words individually; and have come to mean something different when used together. i.e. candy, usually covered with chocolate and often containing nuts and caramel.
So, in the technical sense, no it’s not a bar. But it wouldn’t raise any red flags to me I said “Get me a candy bar, I don’t care what kind;” but then was handed a Reese’s. I don’t think I would dismiss the effort and declare “This is NOT a candy bar!”
And whoever of you that would… I’d think you were being pedantic.
Well, no, that’d be rude. But it would not be what I was expecting. I have changed my expectations after seeing this poll and knowing that there is a usage split, and will alter my requests to be more specific when I specifically want a candy bar as opposed to just any chocolate/candy confectionary. Yes, I love Reese’s (they are perhaps my favorite confection in the candy bar aisle), but sometimes I don’t want to fiddle with the damned things and just want a bar-form candy.
This is what’s bugging me about this poll. The OP asked a very specific (technical) question. He was asking us to classify what type of candy RPCs are.
If he had asked: “What’s your favorite candy bar?” and people responded with “RPCs” I wouldn’t have thought nothing of it.
Nice. 
Oh, and I have no animosity toward anyone saying that the RPBCs are not bars. You are logically correct, if not semantically correct in all ideolects.
I remember moving from California to Ohio and shocking people with the sloppy way that I used the word coke.
I just came to point out that York Peppermint Patties do not have any coconut in them.
I think what you aren’t getting is that, for a lot of us, paragraph one necessarily follows from the acceptance of paragraph two. If a valid response to “What’s your favorite candy bar?” is RPC, then RPC must be a candy bar in some sense.
It’s essentially the descriptivist/prescriptivist divide. If RPC can be used in a place that asks for a candy bar answer, then it is candy bar, no matter the technical specifications.
Yeah, that’s interesting. If I asked someone what their favorite candy bar was, and RPC was an answer, I don’t think I would think anything of it. But if someone asked me what my favorite candy bar was, I wouldn’t even think of RPC. I’d probably answer “Snickers” or “Heath,” even though I prefer RPC to both of those. It’s not a technical thing; it’s just that my brain personally doesn’t go there when I think “candy bar.”