Below, Bianchetti tells the following story about how the name of the "Kiss and Cry" area came about:
- 'In Finland I made some very good friends and one of my best is Jane Erkko. She made me really feel at home when I was in Helsinki. Jane and I had real harmony in our views on most skating matters and she contributed a lot to the development of the sport in her country. An amusing story is that she is the one who came up with the name the “kiss and cry corner."
One day Jane was watching an ice dance competition on TV with some young skaters in her club. In Finland in the 1970s, they did not have ice dancing. They noticed that the competitors kissed and cried while they were waiting for their marks to be displayed, and they commented on this fact.
This expression remained a joke among the skaters and with Jane as the place where the skaters would sit down after skating their programs.
In 1983 the World Championships were to be held in Helsinki, Jane was a member of the organizing committee. Before the championships, the television technicians make an inspection visit to the sight of the championships to establish where to place the cameras. To make things easier, Jane had prepared a big blue board with a map of the rink. The chief technician identified and marked the spots where the judges would sit, the opening in the barrier where the skaters would enter the arena and exit after the competition. It was a space decorated with flowers and a seating area. He asked, "What is that?” Jane very naturally answered, "The kiss and cry corner.” He then took his pen and wrote on the board: KISS AND CRY. This name happened to be so appropriate that it has remained ever since and is officially used to define the corner.'
