A truly fattening candy

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Jan 4, 2001

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- A Ukrainian candy company has begun marketing what may be the stickiest, richest and most fattening holiday treat on the market: pure pork fat covered in chocolate. Cracking open a finger-sized stick of the dark chocolate bar reveals a vein of white fat where other candies conceal butterscotch, caramel or other traditional sweets. The candies are called "Fat in Chocolate."

The product pokes fun at the traditional Ukrainian snack of salo, or salted pork fat, usually consumed with vodka and pickles. Salo is a national symbol of Ukraine and is recognized throughout the former Soviet Union, though younger people in this country these days often turn up their noses at the dish. A spokesman for candy company AO Odessa said the "Fat in Chocolate" bars were made as a lighthearted and self-deprecating joke for Ukrainians. While edible, they are not really meant to be eaten, the official said.

A bar tried Tuesday was very sweet, while the fat filling retained some of its saltiness. The fat had the gooey texture of overcooked pasta. The bars, wrapped in red holiday foil, show a Ukrainian Cossack with a mustache munching a piece of fat. The candies sold briskly to laughing customers in stores in Ukraine's capital, Kiev, on Tuesday.

TV reality

ATLANTA (Cox) -- The biggest event in television this year could be a nonevent. Threatened strikes by the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild could shut down, or severely crimp, the fall 2001 season.

The two unions say they may walk when contracts expire in early summer, shutting down not only TV but feature film production for an undetermined length of time. While feature films scramble to finish shooting by May, the TV networks are trying to squeeze more episodes out of their established series like Law & Order and are readying all sorts of reality programming.

You'll see the next big wave of reality shows soon. ABC's The Mole, about 10 players who travel to different cities to complete missions while battling an unknown saboteur within the group, starts Tuesday, followed on Wednesday by Fox's Temptation Island, in which committed couples are tempted to stray by hottie singles. On Jan. 12, the WB launches Popstars, about young women trying to qualify for a singing group. And those are mere appetizers for the biggie, CBS's Survivor: The Australian Outback, which premieres after the Super Bowl on Jan. 28 and then goes head to head with NBC's Friends starting Feb. 1.

A record for Paris

PARIS (AP) -- Attracted by its world-famous monuments and romantic aura, more than 26 million tourists visited Paris in 2000, setting a record for the number of visitors to the French capital in one year. Americans led the way with more than 2.1 million visitors checking in to Parisian hotels, according to Christian Mantei, director of the Paris Tourism Bureau. Close behind were 1.6 million Britons who crossed the English Channel to come to the city. Mantei said 60 percent of the people visiting Paris this year came from countries other than France.

The millennium also turned out to be a major public relations coup for Paris. The investment of 15 million French francs ($2.1 million) for the dazzling firework display at the Eiffel Tower paid off with photos on hundreds of newspaper front pages and entire special sections in magazines, Mantei said. In addition to New Year celebrations, more than 5,000 cultural events, from art exhibits to concerts and picnics, made Paris more attractive than ever for tourists.

"The city is sexy," Mantei said. "The city has never been sexier."

One false axiom?

ATLANTA (Cox) -- Everybody knows that starting a new business is risky. But George Gendron, editor-in-chief of Inc. Magazine (January), says the conventional wisdom that "four out of every five new businesses fail is patently untrue." Nobody knows the true mortality rate of new companies, but he says that most of them survive at least five years.

Those were the days

NEW YORK (AP) -- Today is the fourth day of 2001. There are 361 days left in the year. Here are some business and legal highlights from this date in history:

In 1885, Dr. William W. Grant of Davenport, Iowa, performed what's believed to have been the first appendectomy. The patient was 22- year-old Mary Gartside.

In 1896, Utah was admitted as the 45th state.

In 1951, during the Korean conflict, North Korean and Communist Chinese forces captured the city of Seoul.

In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson outlined the goals of his "Great Society" in his State of the Union address.

In 1974, President Richard Nixon refused to hand over tape recordings and documents subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee.

In 1995, the 104th Congress convened, the first entirely under Republican control since the Eisenhower era; Newt Gingrich was elected speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Ten years ago: With a week and a half left before a U.N. deadline for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait, Iraq agreed to hold its first high- level talks with the United States since the start of the Persian Gulf crisis.