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I must go to a couple of dozen meetings and events a week between Attleboro and Taunton and every place in between. I like to be busy. Ask my wife.

Although I'm more of a small businessman than a journalist these days, old habits never die. I always keep my ears open for news.

At mid-week I was at the Attleboro Rotary Club meeting at Highland Country Club, when I picked up a sweet nugget of `` news.''

The luncheon speaker was Dr. Ronald A. Crutcher, new president of Wheaton College in Norton. He is a very interesting guy with diverse talents -- like being a world-class cello player who performs in concert several times a year with a trio, usually in London -- and he and Wheaton look like a great fit.

But what caught my eye were the bags of M&Ms at everyone's place at the table. They were Wheaton M&Ms, Dr. Crutcher told us, because the bag contained only white and blue candies -- Wheaton's colors. One of the Mars women graduated from Wheaton, I believe, and thus the college had an in, although I understand they customize the colors for any college or university that wants them.

What really intrigued me was a comment at my table that the blue M&Ms for Wheaton were the first blue ones ever made.

Now that's news!

I'm probably not as good a reporter as I used to be, but I couldn't actually pin that down. I don't doubt it. I just can't prove it.

I did find out, however, that the first blue M&Ms appeared about 10 years ago, in 1995.

I also now know that M&M stands for Mars and Murrie, the two founders of the company in 1941. The candies were so popular with soldiers during World War II their success was sealed.

Those first M&Ms were red, yellow, green, brown, orange and violet. In 1949 tan replaced violet, and blue replaced tan in 1995.

They make more than 400 million M&Ms a day, and in an average bag of M&Ms, 30 percent are brown, there are 20 percent each of yellow and red, and 10 percent each of orange, green and blue.

Except in the Wheaton College M&Ms, where 50 percent are blue, I suspect.

Oh, and they all taste the same, no matter what color they are and no matter what your taste buds tell you. Ok, so now you want your own colors, right?

In addition to special holiday color combos, they have 21 customized colors you can create right at specialty candy stores just by pressing a few buttons.

What will they think of next'85

Thanks for the papers

Look who's been someplace and brought me back a newspaper:

Thanks to Brian Jeannotte of Attleboro for dropping off papers he received from Lancaster, N.H., and to Ana Easton for a paper from Buffalo.

Thanks also to David Arnold from The Literacy Center in Attleboro for papers from Charlotte, N.C., and to Karen Carlson for papers from Maine and New Hampshire.

Quote of the week

`` The intrusion of religious authority into politics undermines the unimpeded exercise of conscience that is so essential to a healthy democracy.'' -- David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.

See you next week.

ORESTE P. D'ARCONTE is publisher of The Sun Chronicle. Reach him at darconte@thesunchronicle.com or at 508.236.0394.