Candy Loooooooooove

My favorite! All that heart-shaped goodness made of chocolate, marshmallow, chocolate, and the Necco wafer stuff. Good old candy hearts - conversation hearts - were first factory-made in 1902. NECCO has to make about 100,000 pounds of these babies every day to meet the Valentine demand. Then about 8 billion are sold in six weeks. Conversation hearts were invented in the 1860s by the brother of NECCO's founder. Civil War era candy! In their first incarnation they had printed paper notes tucked inside. A sample message: "Please send a lock of your hair by return mail." Creepy. I'll stick with "Luv U". By the way, my italic font function is working just dandy. If you were wondering.

Books that feature the phenomena of conversation hearts:

Candy and me : a love story / Hilary Liftin.

Candyfreak : a journey through the chocolate underbelly of America / Steve Almond.

Here's the generator I used to produce these library-themed confections: ACME Heart Maker