I’d like to say that the photograph of me on the bicycle shows my commitment to being green and reducing my carbon footprint. And although I used to ride a bicycle to the train station in the past – about three miles one way – I’ve succumbed to the convenience of driving a car to work these past years.

Hi. My name is Crystal Lindell and I work for a print magazine. Yes, print as in, “on paper.” The publication has a website (two actually), and a Facebook page and a Twitter account, but at the heart of our work is our monthly print publication. Long story short, I rely on dead trees and snail mail for my paychecks each month (which makes me a little crazy), but I believe in what we do here.

For most of us living in the United States, International Women’s Day came and went yesterday, overshadowed by Fat Tuesday and Paczki Day celebrations. Not that I’m against either one, mind you, because they both are wonderful opportunities for feasting. Nevertheless, because of the moon’s wandering this year, International Women’s Day faced stiff competition in drawing attention from such party themes as Mardi Gras and Polish jelly donuts.

If you could compare me to a candy I would like to invent my own - pop rocks covered in chocolate! Doesn’t sound like the most delicious concoction, but it describes me well - sweet on the outside, yet bursting on the inside, always wanting to get outside or experience some event in Chicago.

As to remind me that winter really isn’t over in Chicago, we had a dusting of snow (less than an inch) yesterday. The snow cover, albeit pretty, was a far cry from sunshine, palm trees and summer wear at last week’s venue, the Fontainebleau Resort in Miami Beach, the host hotel for the National Confectioners Association (NCA) State of the Industry Conference.

My first response to recent news that chocolate is a “super food” was, “AWESOME! Chocolate for breakfast it is!” That was followed shortly by, “I always knew in my heart that this was the case” and then, “Hmm, I don’t know if I believe this information.”

Saturday night I attended For the Love of Chocolate, the French Pastry School’s scholarship fundraising affair in the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. In one evening, I went from a girl who thought chocolate fountains were impressive to a woman who had eaten a chocolate pudding passion fruit cup that tasted like, well, like theobroma, truly food from the gods.

Greetings from the International  Sweets & Biscuits Fair (ISM) in Cologne, Germany. We had a dusting of snow last night, a symbolic sign of solidarity for all those in the Midwest and other areas who are enduring a Groundhog Day Blizzard.

Eating “right” is often harder than parallel parking, finding a pair of jeans that fit right, and remembering which their/there/they’re to use combined. Lucky for us corporations are trying to lend a healthy hand.

To paraphrase Art Linkletter’s television show, newspapers print some of the darndest things. The other day my associate editor, Crystal Lindell, passed me an article from the News Journal in Delaware regarding the infamous “candy cane civil suit,” an event that happened several years ago involving the origins of candy canes and religious intolerance.