Chocolate-Covered Philosophy

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Oct 4, 1999 | by Stephen Goode

Forrest Gump, the beloved hero of the movie with the same name, famously observed that "Life is like a box of chocolates: You never know what you're going to get" and generally was regarded as a kind of plain-speaking, if somewhat simpleminded, philosopher for having said so.

He also may have been just plain wrong, but certainly not about life -- of which it truly can be said that you're never certain about what's ahead. Mr. Gump was wrong about that box of chocolates, in which, it seems, the chocolates do indeed come labeled with what's underneath the outer coating. You just have to know how to read the signs. Or, really, how to read the squiggles on the outside of each chocolate, squiggles which indicate the filling that lurks inside.

"A lot of people poke the bottoms," which is completely unnecessary, James Connelly told the Associated Press. Connelly, of Hillards House of Candy of Hanover and North Easton, Mass., was attending the two-day, twice-yearly meeting at the Philadelphia National Candy, Gift & Gourmet Show in the City of Brotherly Love when he provided this insider's look.

A round chocolate with a circle on top most likely will have an orange filling, he explained. The letter "R" indicates raspberry, the letter "V" means vanilla and a chocolate with a loop down the side will have lemon flavoring, Connelly added.

These signs may vary a bit from maker to maker, except for a straight line, which is always peppermint. So, in the end, a box of chocolates is like life: The better informed you are, the fewer nasty surprises you're going to encounter. Gump was right after all.