Columnist Lisa Ferguson: Sun Lite for April 21, 2003

Lisa Ferguson

Monday, April 21, 2003 | 8:31 a.m.

Bean there, done that

If haven't already done so (and we hope you have, seeing as how it's Monday and all), take off your Easter bonnet and grab a party hat. There's much to celebrate this week.

Thanks to the talents of environmentally friendly marketers, you'll be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn't know Tuesday is Earth Day. Of course, there hasn't been as big a push to spread the word that it's also Jelly Bean Day.

We're guessing there are still a few of the sugary lumps buried deep in the neon-green plastic grass of picked-over Easter baskets throughout this great land, especially since Americans chew some 15 million jelly beans each Easter this according to trivia featured on the website infoplease.com. Good luck finding any cherry beans, though: It seems that's the flavor children gobble first, followed by strawberry, grape, lime and blueberry. (Guess fans of the weird, black-licorice jellybeans are few and far between.)

Interestingly enough, jelly beans didn't become an Easter tradition until the 1930s, according to a history lesson featured on giambriscandy.com, the website of Giambri's Candy in Clementon, N.J. The beans' true origins are somewhat of a mystery: Candy experts theorize the jelly center descended from a Biblical-age confection called Turkish Delight, while the shell coating was derived from the same "panning" process that was invented in 17th-century France to cover Jordan almonds.

Exactly how and when jelly beans made their way to U.S. shores is also debatable. Among the earliest-known appearances is an 1861 ad that urged jelly beans be sent to Union Army soldiers fighting the Civil War. Makes sense: Stale, hard jelly beans could likely be potentially lethal ammunition in a pinch.

Bard-y on, dudes!

Not only is Wednesday Professional Secretaries' Day, it also marks the 439th birthday of the late, great William Shakespeare. (Ironically, he died the same day in 1616.) Let's play a party game: Make an anagram using the letters in the Bard's name. Need help? Visit anagramgenius.com. The site dedicated to rearranging letters of words and phrases in order to form other phrases (that's an anagram, genius) has a slew of Shakespeare stuff in its archives.

William Shakespeare becomes, "I am a weakish speller"; "We all make his praise"; and "I sleepwalk a ham sire," among others.

The play "Romeo and Juliet" is (appropriately), "One jilted amour" and "Lure me toad join." Here's "As You Like It": "I stalk you." Fittingly, "The Taming of the Shrew" is, "The woman's the fighter."

How's that for butchering Shakespeare?

Tree-t 'em well

Party people in the house, let's give it up for Arbor Day! Get down with your bad selves Friday in honor of Ponderosa pines, weeping willows, Douglas firs or whichever may be your favorite tree.

Wood-n't you know it: Trees have roots in cultural mythology. Tree In a Box a Datil, N.M., company that sells, well, tree-seed kits in boxes shares some of the tales on its website, treeinabox.com: