June is National Candy Month, although December 28th is National Chocolate Day

The Nike swoosh was designed by University of Oregon student Carolyn Davidson in 1964. She was paid $35 dollars for the design.

Candy Canes
Legend has it that in 1670, the choirmaster at the Cologne Cathedral in Germany handed out sugar sticks among his young singers to keep them quiet during the long Living Creche ceremony. In honor of the occasion, he had the candies bent into shepherds' crooks.

Before he became famous for his TV comedy work, the late Phil Hartman worked as a graphic designer. He created the logo for Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.

The idea of a sweet treat was first invented by cavemen who ate honey from bee hives.

During ancient times the Egyptians, the Arabs and the Chinese prepared confections of fruit and nuts candied in honey.

Italic type was invented by Aldus Manutius in 1501, and was known early on as the Aldine. In 1490 Aldus had begun a printing press in Venice, producing great works of Greek, Latin, and Italian literature at affordable prices. These works were printed in italic type, which is said to have been based on Petrarch's slanted handwriting.

Candy is made simply by dissolving sugar in water. The different heating levels determine the types of candy: Hot temperatures make hard candy, medium heat will make soft candy and cool temperatures make chewy candy. By the mid-1800s, over 380 American factories were producing candy — primarily "penny candy," which was sold loose from glass cases in general stores.

In Ghana color has rich symbolism. Gold or Yellow among the Akan, Ga and Ewe represents royalty, continuous life, prosperity, warmth, glory, maturity, prime of life and the presence of God. White represents purity, virtue, joy and victory and Green represents newness, fertility, vitality and primeness in Growth. Black symbolizes vice, deep feeling of Melancholy, the devil, death and their power over life and old age, objects dedicated to the dead are usually colored black. Red is used on occasions of melancholy, death of a relative, wars, national anger or crisis, violence or sudden calamity. Blue is the color for love and female tenderness. Grey seems to indicate blame, degradation and shamefulness.

Chocolate begins with a bean ... a cacao bean. It has been mashed and eaten for centuries. The history of chocolate spans from 200 B.C. to the present, encompassing many nations and peoples of our world.

Seven billion pounds of chocolate and candy are manufactured each year in the United States.

The melting point of cocoa butter is just below the human body temperature -- which is why it literally melts in your mouth.

World leader in graphic design and typography, Neville Brody is perhaps the best known graphic designer of his generation. Brody first made his way into the public eye through his record cover designs and his involvement in the British independent music scene in the early 1980s.

Denmark has the highest per capita consumption of candy in the world at 29.5 pounds.

Tootsie Rolls were invented by Leo Hirshfield in 1896. He named the candy after his 5 year old daughter whose nickname was Tootsie.

Alexey Brodovitch (1898-1971) is a legend among graphic designers. A Russian who fled the Bolshevik Revolution and eventually settled in Paris and then New York, Brodovitch was one of the pioneers of graphic design in the twentieth century.

He was the art director of Harper's Bazaar for two decades (1934-58); designed and produced several exquisite and highly collectible books with collaborators such as Richard Avedon and Andre Kertesz; was a talented photographer himself; and, through an informal class called the Design Lab in New York, trained a younger generation of photographers and designers who went on to become famous artists and art directors in their own right.

The name M&M's comes from the last name of the two founders. Mars and Murrie.

Pez It was 1927 in Vienna, Austria when the now famous PEZ candy was born from the mind of a man named Eduard Haas. Haas's original intent with this candy was to market the mint to adults to help them quit smoking cigarettes. The first and only flavor until 1952 was peppermint. Interestingly, this is how PEZ got its name. The German word for peppermint is pfefferminz. He took the first, middle and last letter to get the name PEZ (PfeffErminZ).

The name lollipop was first coined by George Smith, owner of a confectionery business called the Bradley Smith Company. George Smith named the stick candy after his favorite race horse Lolly Pop. George Smith trademarked the name lollipop in 1931, the name has since fallen into public domain. However, George Smith's story of how he thought up the name might be true horse tail, since in the northern part of England, "lolly" means "tongue" and the word lollipop may have first originated in England. George Smith still was the only person to trademark the name Lollipop.

Early American settlers made a chewing gum from spruce sap and beeswax. In 1848, John B. Curtis made and sold the first commercial chewing gum called the State of Maine Pure Spruce Gum.

Gummi candy comes from Germany. Hans Riegel invented gummi bears in the 1920s. He was the owner of the German candy company Haribo. Haribo made the first gummi candy in the United States in 1982. Another German gummi candy manufacturer called Trolli decided to made the first gummi worm in 1981. Gummi worms are the most popular gummi candy ever made. The average Brite Crawler (the number one gummi worm) is two inches long.

Americans eat 20.7 pounds of candy per person annually. The Dutch eat three times as much.

The world's first chocolate candy was produced in 1828 by Dutch chocolate-maker Conrad J. Van Houten. He pressed the fat from roasted cacao beans to produce cocoa butter, to which he added cocoa powder and sugar.

The ice cream soda was invented in 1874 by Robert Green. He was serving a mixture of syrup, sweet cream and carbonated water at a celebration in Philadelphia. He ran out of cream and substituted ice cream.

Chocolate contains phenylethylamine (PEA), a natural substance that is reputed to stimulate the same reaction in the body as falling in love.

Licorice dates back to the early times of man. Many pharaohs and prophets enjoyed licorice. Soldiers were recorded drinking licorice to quench their thirsts on long marches. It comes from a plant called the Glycyrrhiza, meaning ‘sweet root’ in Greek. During the Middle Ages, crusaders brought licorice to England.

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