Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the Vermont Attorney General’s office figured out a sweet way to reduce the state’s budget shortfall.

On February 4, the AG settled charges with Russell Stover Candies Inc. and its subsidiary, Whitman’s Candies Inc., to the tune of $10,000 dollars. The problem? The company committed “consumer fraud” by falsely labeling products with the state’s name.

The court docket reads: “Some of the products of Russell Stover and Whitman’s have borne the name ‘Vermont’ on their packaging — specifically Russell Stover’s Vermont Fudge Pecan Roll and Whitman’s Vermont Fudge … None of the ingredients in these products is known to come from Vermont.”

Although there are plenty of references to the pseudo-Vermont Fudge on the web, the Russell Stover website appears to be in compliance: The product now appears there as “maple fudge.”

Wonder where they’re buying all that syrup...

On February 14, Seven Days readers who receive the Merriam-Webster “word-of-the-day” were in for a surprise.

As always, the proper use of the defined term — “dally,” in this case — was illustrated by a sentence. The sentence of the day came from a story by yours truly. It read: “There’s nothing like dallying with your sweetie at an exquisite restaurant on Valentine’s Day.”

The topic of the article, published on February 13, 2008, was how tough it is for chefs to celebrate the holiday, since they’re invariably in the kitchen.

The folks at Merriam-Webster must like Vermont. Just five days earlier, they used a line from the Brattleboro Reformer’s Dianne Lamb to put the word “parsnip” in context.