A n d r e w s G u m W o r l d

Of course, the real trick with addressing the dilemmas represented by all these gum-spattered streets and by-ways of the world would be to discover a bio-degradable gum, which is a task that Revolymer, Ltd. (which grew out of the University of Bristol; see below), is indeed taking on.

They’ve got a great website with videos and other details on the initial research into a gum which appears, in preliminary trials, to disintegrate within months in regular rain water.

Revolymer is testing their product at the epicentre of committed gum clean-up efforts (as you’ve read in earlier postings), the United Kingdom.

As their website notes, they are conducting…

…street trials in towns in the UK with the help of local councils to prove our product is removed naturally compared to commercial gums which remain stuck to the pavement.

 

(As noted, some of the initial research that led to the formation of “clean gum” and the formation of Revolymer was conducted at University of Bristol. To read more, and to see a photo of Professor Terence Cosgrove wielding a piece of the “clean gum” in question, click here.)

Today’s Inventor Spot website reports on Japanese gum giant Lotte’s efforts to expand into the bath salts markets with a series of scents that match their most popular gums.

You can read Steve Levenstein’s complete report here, but here is a quick highlight:

Bathing just got a whole lot sweeter, thanks to chewing gum scented bath and body salts! Enjoy the aroma of Japan’s favorite chewing gums in six classic flavors including coffee, pickled plum and blueberry.

Lotte, one of Japan’s biggest confectioners, has partnered with toy & game giant Bandai Namco to create this scented sextet of chewing gum bath and body salts. Not being your average aromatherapy products, one has to wonder if the bather retains the aroma of coffee or sour plum after soaking in their essence.

Elsewhere, we’ve mused on the late night crises of chewing gum (albeit crises that involve flavour-loss and bedposts), but the (once defunct and now reunited, kinda) band Smashing Pumpkins had a much more metaphysical long-dark-night-of-the-soul take on chewing gum and being uncertain about, well, life itself. Here are a few lyrics from the song (and you can read the rest by clicking here):

chewing gum
wondering where i’ve been and what i’ve done
wondering where i’ll go and where i’ll run
hide myself away from everyone

Buccia di cipolla - Peel onion, originally uploaded by Patassini Alessandro.

A staple of Mediterranean and Italian cooking is the onion (stick with us here, it’s all going to connect…the beautiful photograph above, which was taken in Molvena in the Veneto region of Italy…and the newspaper report from the Malta Independent, from the island of Malta in the Mediterranean sea), although one occupation hazard is, as always, peeling said onions.

Today’s Independent has a question from Yanika Cassar from Naxxar about why we cry when we peel onions, as the newspaper does the best to answer the question (it has to do with spraying acid from the onion), including an onion-peeling tip that makes the heart of AndrewsGumWorld leap with joy:

Chewing gum while peeling onion will keep you from crying… Cool, eh?

This is a limited edition school desk (one of 25) made entirely of metalized timber, and is complete with every important school desk detail, including chewing gum and graffiti.

The title of this artwork is “Based Upon My School” by Jimmy St. James and it was designed for Citizen:citizen (and was featured on yet another cool site for ideas, aesthetics and design called NotCot).

On behalf of my friends in high schools, dining services, Green and Clean fleets and Chewing Gum Action Groups, and in the custodial services (in fact, one of my friends in that line of work suggested that I should widely share this particular bit of advice a day or so ago as he looked on, with some small dismay, at my fists full of gum, ready to be widely shared), a friendly and simple reminder:

Once it’s unwrapped, chewing gum belongs in one of two places: Your mouth, or in the garbage can.

(You may now return to your regular programming…)

While trolling about the web for facts, figures and insights about the world of gum, I discovered that Tory Hedge bravely stepped out on the website GoPetition (see its logo and mission above) in 2004 and suggested that the ban on gum in schools had lasted long enough (as you might guess, where Gum Guy works, gum — quite happily — is not banned), and it was time for a change. Over the last four years, 445 have signed the petition, and if you’d like to check it out (the intended of the petition, btw, is Superintendent[s?] of Schools in the United States) you can click here.

Nihilist Chewing Gum.jpg, originally uploaded by Shamrockery.

Kneading Beet Bread Dough, originally uploaded by Tali Even-Kesef.

Maybe you have a lot of time on your hands…or maybe you just don’t like store bought bubble gum. If that’s you, you’ll be happy to know that there is a recipe for making bubble gum at home that will produce a half pound of bubblegum.

You can find the recipe at cdkitchen.com (there’s also a great feature on the site that allows you to change the quantities of your finished recipe, so if you want to make, say, ten pounds of bubble gum, you can), although here’s a shopping list if you’re ready to get started on the half pound recipe:

1/3 cup Gum Base
3/4 cup Powdered Sugar
3 tablespoons Corn Syrup
1 teaspoon Glycerine
1/2 teaspoon Citric Acid
5 drops Flavoring*

(Incidentally the picture above is a nice one from Tali Even-Kesef about kneading beet bread, but I’ve included it because one of the steps in the recipe suggests “Work it as if you’re kneading bread dough,” so I’m guessing that’s how part of the home bubblegum making process will look.)

*This provides a link to organic bubble gum syrup and, as it turns out, the beet bread link is perhaps not that far-fetched; here’s a list of what’s included in the syrup: “Organic Corn Syrup, Water, Natural Flavors, Beet Extract”