Tuesday, January 30, 2024

Cleaning out the Inbox

   The cleaning of the inbox is a bit overdue and we start with a note from Denise Nicarry, who informed me that Fruit Stripe gum is being discontinued after a sixty-four-year tenure.

Fruit Stripe and its iconic zebra mascot date back to 1960 and its parent company Beech-Nut Gum, with its striped stick with flavor that would give the chewer a few-second blast of strong flavor before almost completely disappearing.

After that jolt, Fruit Stripe was just another chewing gum but for those few seconds, it was Nirvana for the chewing gum user.

The recent retirement of Nick Saban from Alabama saw several articles on the man who has a case for the greatest college football coach in history but I found this one interesting from ESPN.

There are fewer coach shows than there used to be and even fewer that will allow callers to call and speak with the coach himself.

This article looks at the show, Saban's personality and willingness to do the show, and his number one caller who always starts the show with questions about the offensive line.

Space.com writes of the twentieth anniversary of the Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, landing on Mars on two different dates in January 2004.

The pair were supposed to be able to work for three months on Martian soil but lasted years longer with Spirit lasting until 2010 and Opportunity an amazing fifteen years before losing contact in 2019.

The rovers made numerous discoveries during their Martian excursion including finding the first meteorite on another planet and proving that Mara at one time did possess water.

Omaha.com writes of the history of their now-demolished racetrack Ak-Sar-Ben (Nebraska spelled backward) and the final resting place of their namesake racehorse.

Omaha won the Triple Crown in 1935 and had been buried at Ak-Sa-Ben in 1959.

The monument marking the spot of his grave was moved in 1974 to expand the grandstand but the remains were not moved and when the track was razed, no one actually knew where Omaha was buried.

The article thinks they have figured out the answer and shows the monument to Omaha where it stands near the campus of Nebraska-Omaha.


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