Flannel Shirt

A study of how the top .1% make their scratch

Here.

I didn't find any letter carriers there.

A sign of the Apocalypse

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Twinkies maker Hostess Brands Inc. has filed for bankruptcy protection.

The company, based in Irving, Texas, said it was struggling with pension and benefits costs and the tough economy.

It's not the first time the maker of Wonder Bread and Ding Dongs has filed for bankruptcy. Ripplewood Holdings took control of bankrupt Interstate Bakeries in 2009 and renamed it Hostess Brands.

Interstate was created in 1937, but Twinkies are even older. They were created in 1930 by Continential bakery manager James A. Dewar in Schiller Park, Ill., selling for a nickel for two.

Hostess said in a statement that Ho-Hos and its other products aren't going away. Its bakeries and outlet stores will stay open during the restructuring, with financing by Silver Point Capital. 



I have been told that deep-fried twinkies are great food. They may take a year off your life, but they are supposed to be great. I would hate for them to disappear before I've tried one.

When my daughter and I drove up to Oregon in early October we stopped at a roadside restaurant for breakfast and I had a deep-fried chicken-fried steak. It was wonderful.

a most curious legal defense

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In this case the legal defense was so good that Pepsico chose to change its attorneys.

Plaintiff Ronald Ball filed suit against the Pepsi defendants two years ago.

He claimed that after buying a can of Mountain Dew at a vending machine at work, he began to drink it only to spit out the soda, finding a dead mouse within.

The plaintiff then alleges he sent the mouse in a Mason jar to Pepsi which then allegedly destroyed the mouse's body.

Ball's suit also included the owners of the Shop n'Save grocery chain where the soda was purchased for the machine.

However, those defendants were dropped from the suit.

Pepsi had at one point sought summary judgment in the case.

It cited the testimony of a scientist who testified that if the mouse had truly been in the soda since its bottling, its body would have dissolved into a "jelly-like substance."

Attorney Steven Danekas of the Swanson firm also withdrew on Feb. 17.

Original story in the Madison Record.