So farewell smarties...

Is it just me or does the pace of economic and cultural change quicken? As one grows older, the familiar icons of one's personal infrastructure increasingly vanish into the recesses of the collective boxroom storing the victims of technological innovation. The Guardian reports:

"Nestlé, the world's largest food and drink company, yesterday announced the loss of 645 jobs at the famous Rowntree chocolate factory in York as it brought to an end 70 years of producing Smarties in the UK...
Smarties, which have been made at the factory in York since 1937, will now be produced in a Nestlé factory in Hamburg. The company is also shifting to Spain the production of the chocolates Dairy Box, and moving the Black Magic line to the Czech Republic."

Hamburg smarties will not taste the same.

(I have to admit, however, that I have avoided smarties since they replaced the familiar tubes with those peculiar hexagonal structures.)