Blog Dog Dan: WHAT'S MAJOR TOM THINKING ABOUT TODAY?

I have been thinking about three things this week, and I don’t know what to talk about first – Cool Whip, apples, or batteries! I have a lot of time to think when it's hot outside!

Cream is a real special treat for me! In 2010, both skimmed milk and light cream were added to Original Cool Whip. It was originally described as "non-dairy" because it did not contain cream, milk, or lactose. Cool Whip was invented in 1966 by William A. Mitchell, a food chemist who started his career at General Foods in 1941. His first big success came with a tapioca substitute developed during World War II.

Pop Rocks was accidentally invented by Mitchell in the 1950s while trying to create an instant carbonated drink! In fact, there was an urban legend (not true) that Little Mikey (from the Life Cereal commercials) died as a result of chugging a soda while eating Pop Rocks.

The commercial, which featured child actor John Gilchrist and his two real-life brothers, ran from 1974 to 1986, becoming one of the longest-running commercials ever aired! A series of "Today's Mikey" ads, with Gilchrist’s character now a college student, aired in the mid 1980s. In 2010, Life was featured on the "Eat This, Not That" website. It was categorized as a healthy cereal, but was negatively criticized for its content of Yellow #5.

Mitchell invented Tang in 1957. Tang was famously used by some early NASA space flights. In 1962, when Mercury astronaut John Glenn conducted eating experiments in orbit, Tang was selected for the menu, and was also used during some Gemini flights. Mitchell also invented Jell-O, powdered egg whites for cake mix, Pop Rocks, and Increda Bubble carbonated gum!

These processed foods made me think about a natural food, apples! The apple tree was perhaps the earliest tree to be cultivated. Apples were brought to North America with colonists in the 17th century, and the first apple orchard on the North American continent was said to be near Boston in 1625.

McDonald’s just announced that they will be reducing the french fry portion by more than half and automatically adding apples in their Happy Meals in September. As a result, the new Happy Meals will be under 600 calories (20% fewer calories). They’re also going to reduce the sodium in the U.S. menu by 15% by 2015. Thank you, McDonald’s – that makes us very, very HAPPY.

I guess I got all “charged” up and started thinking about batteries. The word voltage is an eponym from Alessandro Volta, the inventor of the first electric battery in 1800. He built an electric battery to disprove the theory of bioelectricity by his associate (Luigi Galvani) in 1791. The author Mary Shelley was influenced by Galvani’s work when she wrote Frankenstein. Of course, the words galvanization, galvonometer, etc., are eponyms of his name. Both men have lunar craters named after them, too!