On this date in 2001 Over 100 staff and students in Friley Hall kitchen at Iowa State University baked the world’s largest Rice Krispie square. 10 things you might not know about Rice Krispies:
Rice Krispies are made by cooking Rice at high temperatures so that it expands or puffs up, in a process known as “oven popping”.
They contain air pockets created when starch molecules bond. Adding liquid puts pressure on these pockets and they break, which is what makes the characteristic “Snap, Crackle, Pop” sound they are famous for.
The cartoon mascots, Snap, Crackle and Pop were created in the 1930s by Vernon Grant. They are the first and longest-running cartoon characters to represent a Kellogg's product. They have distinct personalities. Snap is the eldest, the responsible leader; Crackle is the affable middle child and Pop is the mischievous youngest. According a poll by Scientific American in 2002, Americans are more likely to be able to name the Rice Krispie mascots than they are Supreme Court justices.
For a while in the 1950s they were joined by a friend called Pow. He was a tie in with the craze for everything space related and wore a space suit. His name, rather than being related to the sound the cereal makes, was to do with the nutritional power of the grains.
Over the years, Kellogg’s have occasionally got into trouble for making claims about their cereal, for example, that it boosted a child’s immune system and helped them concentrate in school. Law suits ensued and they were forbidden from making such claims. They can, however, inform people that Rice Krispies contain Niacin, iron, vitamin B6, riboflavin, thiamin, folic acid, Vitamin D and vitamin B12.
Snap, Crackle and Pop are known by different names in other languages: Cric! Crac! Croc! In French, Knisper! Knasper! Knusper! In German, Pim! Pam! Pum! In Spanish and Piff! Paff! Puff! In Swedish.
In Australia and New Zealand, they’re called Rice Bubbles.
In 1963, The Rolling Stones recorded a Rice Krispie ad. Mick Jagger sang "Wake up in the morning, there's a Snap around the place, wake up in the morning, there's a Crackle in your face, wake up in the morning, there's a Pop that really says this is for you!"
Iowa State University’s world record mentioned above was beaten in 2010 in California where a Rice Krispie treat measuring 3.66 m long x 2.44 m wide x 2.13 m tall (12 ft x 8 ft x 7 ft) and weighing 4,678.35 kg (10,314 lb) was made. I also found a reference to another at the University of Wisconsin in 2015 which weighed 11,327 pounds.
In America in 2022, there was a Rice Krispie shortage caused by a 71 day strike by workers at the Rice Krispie factory combined with ongoing supply chain issues as a result of the covid plague.
The six richest people in Britain decide to hold a contest to settle the question of which of them is most successful. It will be a gladiator style contest with each entrant fielding a team of ten super-powered combatants. Entrepreneur Llew Powell sets out to put together his team, which includes his former lover, an employee of his company with a fascinating hobby, two refugees from another dimension (a lonely giant and a drunken sailor), two sisters bound together by a promise, a diminutive doctor, a former Tibetan monk initiate and two androids with a history. As the team train together, alliances form, friendships and more develop, while others find the past is not easy to leave behind.
Meanwhile, a ruthless race of aliens has its eyes on the Earth. Already abducting and enslaving humans, they work towards the final invasion which would destroy life on Earth as we know it. Powell’s group, Combat Team Alpha, stumble upon one of the wormholes the aliens use to travel to Earth and witness for themselves the horrors in store if the aliens aren’t stopped. Barely escaping with their lives, they realise there are more important things to worry about than a fighting competition.
No comments:
Post a Comment