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News of the Weird

Staff
Saturday February 02, 2002


Jell-O Museum coming to a town near you 

 

LE ROY, N.Y. — It wiggles, it jiggles, and next week Jell-O is going on the road. 

The Traveling Jell-O Museum is slated to be unveiled in Salt Lake City next week by curator Lynne Belluscio and company spokesman Bill Cosby. 

Utah is the museum’s first stop in part because of international attention directed at Salt Lake City because of the Olympics. But the state also has the highest per capita consumption of the dessert, which is the official state snack. 

Utah households buy an average of 21 servings per year – twice as much as households across the country, Jell-O spokeswoman Camille Rustige said. 

The traveling museum will be on display in Utah through March 5. 

“It depicts little snippets of Jell-O’s history,” Belluscio said in Thursday’s editions of The Daily News of Batavia. 

The exhibit includes several historical items from the permanent Jell-O Museum in Le Roy, the birthplace of Jell-O. The museum, in a century-old stone building, opened in 1997 marking the 100th anniversary of a simple dessert that has become an American icon. 

Pearl Bixby Wait, a carpenter who dabbled in patent medicine, added fruit flavor to gelatin in 1897. His wife christened it Jell-O. 

 

Millionaire kicker


 

 

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. — Randy Rial is hoping he’ll be a millionaire when he leaves the Super Bowl, and he’s not even playing in the game. 

Rial will compete in Hershey’s Million Dollar Kick contest at the Super Bowl XXXVI pre-game show in New Orleans on Feb. 3.  

He’ll be given one chance to make a field goal worth $1 million. 

“It’s really surreal, it’s hard to believe,” Rial told the Battle Creek Enquirer for a story Tuesday. “I can’t believe I’m going to the Super Bowl.” 

Rial, 41, a manufacturing manger for Tenneco Automotive, beat out five others Monday in a qualifying round in Jacksonville, Fla.  

He was the only finalist to make all three field goals from 15, 25 and 35 yards. 

Jacksonville Jaguars kicker Mike Hollis will help determine the length of Rial’s Super Bowl kick.  

Hollis is attempting three field goals in the days before the Super Bowl; for each successful kick, Rial’s attempt will move five yards closer, starting from 40 yards out. 

Hollis also is working with Rial — a field goal kicker during high school — in the days leading up to the big game. 

Even if Rial doesn’t make the kick, he gets a consolation prize of $10,000.  

And besides, Rial said the contest means more to him than just the chance to win a million bucks. 

“I’m thinking about how I get to go to the Super Bowl, I get to do this kick and I get to watch a great game,” he said.


 

 

 

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RHINEBECK, N.Y. (AP) — The burglary of two historic estates in New York’s Hudson Valley has baffled police, but one thing is clear: The culprits had an eye for fine kitchenware. 

At the Wilderstein Historic Site in Dutchess County last weekend, burglars stole several Tiffany items, including a hot water kettle with matching burner and a cream pot, police said. 

At the Edgewater Estate a few miles away, a sterling silver tea set and a silver service for 12 were reported missing. 

State police estimated the losses at more than $100,000. 

Wilderstein Executive Director Gregory J. Sokaris said that while the items were irreplaceable, he was thankful the burglars did little damage to the house. 

“We were very lucky in that respect,” he told The Register-Star in Hudson, N.Y. “It could have been a lot worse.” 

The burglars somehow managed to circumvent an alarm system that included motion detectors, according to state police Investigator Richard Nesbitt. The investigation is continuing.


 

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PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. (AP) — A charity that had been cleared to serve beer at a fund-raiser during Groundhog Day festivities has decided not to offer up the suds after all. 

“I think we would like to take baby steps to make sure it is a high-quality event,” said Pat Joseph, executive director of the western Pennsylvania chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, which is holding the fund-raiser. “We’re hoping we can bring in something that will be a lot of fun and add things to the weekend in Punxsutawney.” 

In 1996, Groundhog Day organizers banned drinking on Gobbler’s Knob, the spot where Punxsutawney Phil emerges each year in search of his shadow. But earlier this month, Punxsutawney Borough Council voted 5-2 to allow the charity to sell beer. 

The charity will still hold its event, charging $10 admission to see bands in a tent large enough to fit 1,200 people. 

The 1993 release of “Groundhog Day,” the Bill Murray film set in Punxsutawney, helped generate bigger crowds, including an influx of young people who added drinking and dancing to the annual celebration.