Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check

Valentine's Candy, 2010 edition:

Those pastel-colored Sweetheart Conversation Hearts are in stores again this year, featuring 80 different sayings for this Valentine's Day, including a bunch inspired by the computer generation: "Tweet Me," "Text Me," "You Rock," "My Boo" and "Me + You."
   The hearts from Necco (the New England Confectionery Company) have been a Valentine's Day tradition since the Civil War, but the Victorian sweet nothings inscribed on them a century and a half ago have been updated frequently for successive generations of lovers. There's a bunch of the original phrases like "Be Mine," "Be Good," "Be True," "Kiss Me" and "Sweet Talk" among the 80 cliches. Most recently, we've seen "Fax Me," "Email Me," and even "Bite Me" (a nod to Twilight mania) on the tiny hearts.
   The candy company manufactures about 6 billion of the Sweethearts annually, enough to circle the globe twice.

Appropriate love heart candy slogans for Tiger Woods:

   --Playing thru?
   --STD Free
   --Don't call now
   --Rumors R True
   --Hook Me Up
   --Dignity Free
   --Who's Next?
   --Ball Washer
   --Sub Par

Most romantic love songs of all time:

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, the NY Daily News put together a list of the "100 Most Romantic Love Songs Of All Time." The criteria was each song had to have been in the Top 20 during the year it was released, and be at least 10 years old. Here's the Top 10:
10. "I Can't Stop Loving You" --RAY CHARLES
9. "Michelle" --THE BEATLES
8. "Are You Lonesome Tonight" --ELVIS PRESLEY
7. "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" --ROBERTA FLACK
6. "In My Life" --THE BEATLES
5. "You Are So Beautiful" --JOE COCKER
4. "I Just Called To Say I Love You" --STEVIE WONDER
3. "Wonderful Tonight" --ERIC CLAPTON
2. "I'll Be There" --JACKSON 5
1. "My Girl" --THE TEMPTATIONS

Stars and their movies:
Great news for fans of the cult hit "The Hangover" --a sequel is already in the works! BRADLEY COOPER bragged to AbsoluteNow.com that he got together with co-stars ED HELMS, JUSTIN BARTHA and ZACH GALIFIANAKIS and they came up with a few great ideas to top the boys' original weekend in Sin City. (Lee)

Most Winter Olympic Medals:

The 2010 Winter Olympics begin tomorrow evening in Vancouver, BC. Top-10 countries with the most Olympic medals at the Winter Olympics (thru 2006 and including the figure skating and hockey medals from the Summer Olympics before the Winter Olympics began in 1924):
10. East Germany, 110
9. Switzerland, 117
8. Sweden, 118
7. Canada, 119
6. Finland, 150
5. Germany, 160 (1928-32, 1952 and 1992-2006)
4. Austria, 185
3. USSR, 194 (1956-88)
2. USA, 216
1. Norway, 280 total.
Editor's note: Of course, if you add Germany and East Germany together (even though they were split for a period), they make up the second highest total. (Source: Top-10 of Everything 2010, by Russell Ash)