I'm not sure what caused it, but on Tuesday I had a strange compulsion to answer the question "where are twix bars made?" Some quick googling turned up absolutely nothing useful. But rather than get discouraged and give up, I instead turned to Twix.com's contact form. Then, with my amazing attention span, I quickly (and completely) forgot about it. But the helpful people at Twix didn't forget, and on Thursday I got the following reply:

In response to your email regarding TWIX COOKIE BARS.

Thank you for your email.

Mars Snackfood US operates manufacturing facilities in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Georgia, Tennessee, Nevada, and Texas.

Have a great day!

Your Friends at Mars Snackfood US

Which, at first glance, was a bit exciting - I had my answer. But then I thought about it.. "manufacturing facilities in…" does not mean "Twix Cookie Bars are made in facilities in…"..

Armed with this new information, I revised my searching and found the answer:
Where are twix bars made? Cleveland, TN.
Twix are made in Cleveland, Tennessee.

Here's a bit more candy for you information junkies - the U.S. manufacturing facilities and the products that they make:

Albany, GA manufactures
Kudos(R), Combos(R) and SNICKERS(R) Marathon.

Burr Ridge, IL produces
all of the frozen confectionery products.

Chicago, IL produces
MILKY WAY(R), 3 MUSKETEERS(R), SNICKERS(R) in the Fun Size and Minis format, Dove Promises and MUNCH Bar.

Cleveland, TN produces
all varieties of M&M'S(R) Chocolate Candies, and TWIX(R) Cookie Bars.

Elizabethtown, PA produces
MILKY WAY(R) Bar, MILKY WAY MIDNIGHT(R) Bar, 3 MUSKETEERS(R) Bar, and DOVE(R) Chocolate.

Hackettstown, NJ
M&M'S(R) Milk Chocolate Candies, M&M'S(R) Peanut Chocolate Candies, M&M'S(R) MINIS(R) Milk Chocolate Candies and MY M&M'S Custom Candies.

Henderson, NV produces
all the ethel chocolate lounge confections.

Waco, TX produces
SKITTLES(R) Bite Size Candy, STARBURST(R) Fruit Chews, and SNICKERS(R) Bars.

So, this is kind of strange, but I didn't find a single lolcat picture that I liked this week. I don't think I'm being overly picky - nothing jumped out at me as being worthy of being reposted in my weekly lolcat roundup.\

I have a feeling that next week will be much better, I mean, you can't really do worse than "none". So, everyone cross your fingers and say a little prayer to whatever cat-captioning-deity you believe in, and maybe 08/15/08 will be The Greatest lolcat Post EVER!

To make up for the lack of lolcats, I will answer the important question "Where are Twix Bars made?"

Maybe you remember my boycott against Frito-Lay due to their claims of "0 Grams Trans Fat!" even though they still use partially hydrogenated oil (trans fat) in Doritos. Maybe you don't.

During my last grocery shopping adventure I had a wicked craving for Cool Ranch Doritos. I had to turn my cart around and seek out the chip aisle, knowing that I couldn't buy them, but hoping I could find some product from some other brand that would quench my hunger. And that's when I found out that Roundy's makes ranch tortilla chips.

Roundy's.. the brand I'm always afraid to buy. The cheapest of the cheap. But Roundy's doesn't use trans fats in their tortilla chips (that I could tell). Roundy's Ranch Tortilla Chips are also less than half the price per ounce as Cool Ranch Doritos.

Reluctantly.. I finally opened the bag this morning when making my lunch and nom'd on a few.

The result? I think I've got a keeper. The flavor isn't as strong or quite the same as the boycotted Doritos, but they're half the price and have more than half the flavor… my taste buds will adjust.

What is with McCain and his McCronies and this "Obama is a celebrity!" campaign? I don't like McCain or Obama, but one thing that Obama has going for him is that he doesn't come off as a grumpy old man that stares out his window waiting to yell at kids that step on his lawn.

John McCain is a Douchebag

Obama is a celebrity!? He's running for the office of PRESIDENT of the United States of America, he'd damn well better be a "celebrity" by now. At least he's not making arrogant (and incorrect) claims like McCain is about being the "original Maverick". No, Obama's celebrityism (it's a word - promise) comes from him being likable and appealing to the public. Is the McCrony stance on this that Obama wouldn't make a good president because the world likes him more than McCain? Does Alzheimer's affect reasoning too?

Anyway - Ron Paul for President! Wooooh!

I think that's simple enough to understand, but the fun part is how you choose to interpret that. How do you imagine a robot walking?

Here are a few suggestions, but ultimately your robo-style is up to you.

• Quick and jerky movements
• Slow and deliberate like you have cheap balance sensors
• With sound effects
• Locked joints
• Going around corners by turning your upper body first and following with you legs
• Randomly stopping to do "The Robot" dance

Of course you don't want to get kicked out of wherever you are, or fired, so use your best judgment when choosing your unique robo-style.

For those of you that may want to play, but are embarrassed to go all out, here's a little suggestion - try switching the swing of your arms when you walk. Instead of swinging your right arm when your left leg goes forward, swing your left arm. It feels weird, it looks kind of robotish, and it'll help loosen you up and maybe help you progress towards some more hardcore robo-stylings later in the day.

And don't forget to beep every once in awhile.

*beep*

Three years ago spudart posted about The cutest baby porcupine you will ever see… it was cute, unfortunately it was not actually a porcupine. If you check out his post, you will see a picture of what was the cutest hedgehog you will ever see - until now that is.

Since the pictures are on flickr, and it's not letting me link to a thumbnail, and because I respect the photographer's copyright - I'm just going to link to the pictures, and make you do a bit of clicky-work to get at them.

Baby hedgehog being cute and scronched up

… with a smile

Completely scronched up in "Popple" mode

So there we go. I seriously doubt that spudart or anyone else can find a cuter example of a hedgehog, but feel free to try.

my gramma madez it

More lolcats… … !!!