13 September: Pop Tarts

In September 1964 Kellogg's Pop Tarts pastries were introduced. None of the sources I consulted today mentioned the exact date, but here are 10 facts about Pop Tarts, anyway.

1. Kellogg's stole the idea of Pop Tarts from a rival company, Post. Post announced in 1963 that they were making a pastry people could put in their toasters, called Country Squares. They'd got the idea on the back of a similar concept for dog food. However, they made the mistake of announcing the product months before it was ready to hit the shelves, so the race was on for Kellogg's to produce their own toaster pastry.
2. Ironically, the person in charge of developing the product for Kellogg's was called Bill Post. He'd been working at Keebler's baking plant since he was sixteen and knew his stuff. He also knew they were on to a winner when he took samples home and his kids loved them.
3. The first Pop Tarts came in four flavours – strawberry, blueberry, brown sugar cinnamon and Apple currant. Now they come in a huge variety of flavours including hot fudge sundae and Peanut butter.
4. They were originally going to be called "Fruit Scones" but at the time when pop art was popular, Pop Tarts seemed like a more contemporary, fashionable name.
5. They have holes in them for a reason. Without the holes steam would collect inside them and make them soggy.
6. Frosting wasn't introduced until 1967. At first, Kellogg's bosses didn't think frosting would survive being cooked in a toaster. Once Bill Post demonstrated to them that it would, they immediately started producing pop tarts with frosting.
7. They're not exactly the healthiest food out there, since each one contains at least 13 grams of sugar and 5 grams of fat.
8. Bizarrely, Pop Tarts without frosting have more calories than those with it. This is because the non-frosted Pop Tarts have thicker pastry.
9. Healthy or not, people love them. As of 2014 sales of Pop Tarts had increased ever year for 32 years. In 1964, supplies in America actually ran out after two weeks. Kellogg's had to produce an ad, apologising for underestimating demand. "Oops! We goofed," the ad read. "We ran out of Pop Tarts."
10. The US military included Pop Tarts in the food aid packages they dropped in Afghanistan in 2001, "to promote good will".

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

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