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Show lf$c The Times-Independe- Valentine Day Supplement Page 4 Candy company is at the heart of determining sweet messages Love, though now in high gear for the valentine reason, has always been a rocky enterprise, probably because of poor management. Happily, a more reliable, latter-daCupid is available, this one not on far-of- f y Mount Olympus but in Cambridge, Mass. His name is Walter Marshall. Marshall is of vice-preside- logistics and planning at NECCO, the New England Confectionery Company, the venerable wafer people who at this time of year supply those little candy hearts bearing romantic old sayings like Be Mine" messages and new ones like Fax Me." It is Walter Marshall who decides what those messages will be. Among fellow workers, friends and fans, he has earned the title King of Hearts. Its no small kingdom. Production of Sweethearts Conversation Hearts totaled more than 8 billion pieces in 1997. We make Marshall says. Trendy little things, sayings that are going them in three factories, one here in in Thibodaux, Louisiana, and one one Cambridge, in Pewaukee, Wisconsin," says Marshall, who wears a white doctor-typcoat with Walter on the breast looks if he has always walked on the as and pocket of side street. the sunny The hearts start out as a wad of dough comprising mostly sugar, corn syrup, gelatin and various flavorings, colorings and gums. The dough is rolled e out flat, then stamped with a saying and cut into shape. In order to 6tand up to the printing operation, the hearts are just a little thicker than the regular NECCO wafer. "The finished product," Marshall reports, is about 90 percent sugar." But dont worry: There are only three calories in a little heart, six in the larger size, and no fat or sodium at all. The hearts have more than 125 different sayings like Kiss Me," Be Good," Be True and Sweet Talk. But we try to throw in a few new ones each year," around. A couple of samples from last years crop are Be My Icon," www.Cupid," Yeah Right and You Rule." His new additions have many muses. Sometimes I pick up expressions from my grandchildren, sometimes from people around the company and we get letters, hundreds of letters," he says, many with suggestions." The 1998 harvest seems part high-tecpart and a little short on passion. I guess platonic that after 100 years weve run out of ways to say I love you, Marshall notes with irony. By the way, he adds, if you want your own saying printed on the hearts, were more than glad to do it but you have to order at least 3,600 pounds." For Valentine's Holiday Treat Your Loved One to a Sweetheart Steak 'He from 01 (HecHcr h, 3 A heart tart-perf- for the holiday. ect Brevity, of course, is essential on a heart, even more so on the half-incLimitations on message content are three-quarter-in- h model. equally nothing risqu allowed. Marshall points out that kids are big consumers, and Marketing Communications Manager Lory Zimbalatti adds that the candies are even used in count grade schools in games that teach math how many pink ones, how many greens, how many stringent yellows, and so on. The NECCO wafer, matriarch from which the hearts sprang forth, goes back to 1847, when Oliver Chase founded the firm. The conversation hearts were launched in 1902, making them a sweet Valentine tradition and Walter Marshall is the corporate cupid who decides what they say. from Bon Appetites February issue, 1998 Get tfeadyfor Valentines f)ay wi,h ESBiKgr ) Weve got a large selection of Perfume, Mens Mtershavc, Jcwcln; Mens & Womens lingerie 3 1240 S. Huy. 1Q1, Moab Open 10 a.m. - 7 p.m. - Tuesday Saturday jfp j and novcllv items. MeioknMMwMh Phono: f xz i 25.Qz.4326 yexturinj ilaturallp 3 gel) Jiecf Remember, were your fd. ijfgj full-servic- e shipping agentl Injury farmed 38 E. J5. fi Center, Moab PhoneFax: Open 8:30-6:3- 0. M-- F 259-841- 1 9-- 6 w Saturdays |