– – For better or worse, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and Twinkies made me what I am today. Although the humble yet iconic snack treat has been around since 1930, their maker, Hostess, plans to go out of business, selling off its snack cake and bread brands. So as if losing Twinkies wasn’t bad enough, we are also going to lose Wonder Bread, Ho Ho’s, Sno Balls, and Ding Dongs…this is a heavy blow!
Assorted Hostess products have been around since 1888, but the company hadn’t invested heavily in innovation and marketing strategies, struggling also with debt, management changes, union issues, and healthier eating habits. The price of the beloved snacks has skyrocketed on secondary markets such as eBay as of late, but we can always hope that another corporation will pick up the product line…perhaps Twinkie the Kid will yet live on! 
– – When something has more than four legs, it generally tends to inspire a cringe factor. Something with 750 legs would definitely then register high on the creepy and gross-out scale, and this little beauty is so compact as well; a white millipede named Illacme plenipes, which is Latin for “the pinnacle plentiful feet,” and measures a mere 1 – 3 centimeters long.
– – Shut up and eat your creamed spinach! New research has suggested that early human ancestors in central Africa 3.5 million years ago ate a diet of mostly tropical grasses and sedges before evolving a taste for meaty flesh.
– – You’ve probably seen at least some of Geico’s “Happier Than” series in which we are shown people basking in the glee of improbable situations, such as Gallagher smashing watermelons at a farmers’ market and Christopher Columbus with a speedboat. Two comfortably scruffy folksingers called Ronnie and Jimmy then appear to draw the parallel that people saving money on Geico insurance sure are happy, happier than say, a witch at a broom factory…
– – Another Bigfoot sighting has been submitted from Utah’s Provo Canyon where two hikers saw from a safe distance on Sunday what they initially believed to have been a black bear; they stood there for some time fumbling with their camera before getting it to work. When the “bear” suddenly stood and stared directly at them, the hikers fled from the massive animal through the woods, abandoning their camping gear and heading to their car. The camera continued to run during their flight, with images unclear from that point but revealing something moving upright with massive arms (pictured)…
– – A tragedy occurred at the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium late Sunday morning when a young boy visiting the zoo with his mother and friends fell off an observation deck rail into the pit of an exhibit housing 11 African painted dogs.
– – We had earlier posted on how a Beluga whale had learned to imitate human speech, and now we may add the Asian elephant to the list of species capable of mimicking speech…in Korean, yet! 
– – Wild boars are attacking!–And please note that we are talking about the animal spelled “boar,” not “bore,” although lord knows we have an abundance of such creatures. Anyways, while Americans have been battling with Hurricane Sandy, China and Germany have been hit with wild boar attacks. In Berlin, Germany, a wild boar appeared out of the woods, and attacked four individuals before eventually being shot by a police officer. Then in Shantou, China, a boar broke into an office, in the process breaking down a glass window, smashing a water pipe, and attempting to get at a cook. The Chinese boar eventually escaped, and has yet to be found by investigators.
– – Described as “visually stunning” and “the next Avatar,” an upcoming November 21st movie Life of Pi is a 3D magical adventure tale based on the best-selling 2001 novel by Yann Martel which centers on Pi Patel, the 16-year-old precocious son of a zoo keeper who has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal psychology and behavior. The Indian teenager is the only human to survive the sinking of a freighter, and finds himself on a lifeboat with several animals that include an orangutan, a hyena, a wounded zebra, and a Bengal tiger. While on the surface a tale of survival, Life of Pi holds spiritual dimensions as well, although there is no preaching going on here, and more questions are raised about faith and belief than answered. Pi himself practices not only his native Hinduism but also Christianity and Islam; paralleling the story of the young man and the tiger, this is a zen-like tale about coexistence, tolerance, and the reconciliation of opposites…something the world could use more of!
FOXSYLVANIA 
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