Pears and skis: USA Pears is sponsoring Leavenworth skier Torin Koos as he heads to his third Olympic Games this month in Vancouver. The organization touts that the skier grew up in the country’s prime pear-growing region, where 84 percent of the nation’s fresh pear crop originates.

In a prepared statement issued by the pear group, Koos said he was raised near pear orchards, skiied near them at Leavenworth Ski Hill and worked selling pears and other fruit at Smallwood’s Harvest. He also said his pre-race meal, eaten three hours before each race, is “a bowl of oatmeal, topped with brown sugar and slices of green Anjou pears.”

USA Pears is issuing a Torin Koos trading pin for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, which begin Friday. Koos will hand out the pins personally during the games. They will also be available at select grocery stores in Washington, free to anyone who buys at least three pounds of pears.

The pins can also be purchased online at www.usapears.org. They cost $10, with all the profits going to the Boys and Girls Club organization.

Speaking of fruit: Rep. Mike Armstrong, R-Wenatchee, has reintroduced a bill to make Aplets and Cotlets the official candy of Washington.

He originally floated the idea last year, but it stalled in committee talks.

The state currently has no official candy designation. But there is a state tree, grass, flower, fruit, marine mammal, bird, insect, fossil, and fish.

Aplets and Cotlets is a candy made from Washington-grown fruit for more than 70 years. It is produced by Liberty Orchards at its candy-making plant near downtown Cashmere.

The idea for the bill originated with a group of students from Chehalis Middle School while they were studying Washington history, government and state symbols. They considered other candy products but selected Aplets and Cotlets because the fruit comes from Washington and the founders chose to name their company Liberty Orchards because of the importance of liberty to them when they came to Washington.

Melon Mania: A drug-filled melon confiscated at the Chelan County Regional Jail last week is becoming the melon heard ’round the world. A Google search for “melon” and “jail” revealed nearly 100 news organizations and Web sites carrying the story, including most Northwest news organizations, CBS News, the Washington Post and even a news agency in Cambodia. One Web site, thesmokinggun.com, operated by Court TV, carried pictures of the melon and the contraband found inside.

Close call: Maria Gion’s father was killed by a drunk driver in 1984 when she was 14. Memories of that awful time came flooding back to her about 5 a.m. Jan. 31 when a man who had apparently been drinking crashed his pickup into her backyard.

“I’m having a hard time sleeping,” she said. “It’s been very emotional.”

The East Wenatchee woman, her husband and her sons were sleeping when they heard glass shattering in the back of the house.

“We looked out and there’s a truck in our backyard, close to our sliding glass window,” she said. “A gentleman stepped out and said, ‘I drank too much. I drank too much.’ ”

Gion said the family called 911 and brought the 21-year-old Wenatchee driver inside the house on Goldenview Street and helped him clean a small amount of blood off his face. Officers arrived at the scene and booked the suspect into jail on suspicion of drunken driving.

She estimates the accident did at least $7,000 worth of damage to her yard, in addition to breaking a back window. The truck broke sprinkler heads and a wall of concrete bricks, damaged a fence and “totally shredded” their landscape.

This week’s Worm was compiled by reporters Dee Riggs and Michelle McNiel. Have a tip? E-mail it to newsroom@wenatcheeworld.com.