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

No Chewing Gum Today, originally uploaded by Mediachaos.

IMAGE: Wrigley.

Since we were last here, we’ve had a chance to review several cogent and worthy discourses (along with great diagrams) on how gum is produced, and we thought we’d slip in the links here (including two Flash videos, courtesy of Chewing Gum Associations — of International and Japan fame):

How gum is made, Wrigley

How gum is made, International Chewing Gum Association

How gum is made, Chewing Gum Association of Japan

Little Girl playing with chewing gum, originally uploaded by Selestadienne.

IMAGE: Nate Robertson blog.

Nate Robertson (that’s him in a pic from his own blog, chewing gum) has appeared in these pages before as part of the Gum Time tradition that inspires Detroit Tigers rallies (earlier, we included a great shot from Flickr of the animated score board from a Tigers game featuring the rally-worthy, gum-chewing efforts of Mr. Robertson).

As he notes, his blog got its title from this activity:

Along the way, it seems I also am becoming known for chewing huge wads of bubblegum to start Tiger rallies. That’s where the name for this blog comes in.

And, later he indicates that his interests are:

 Going after a World Series title and chewing as much bubble gum as I can fit into my mouth to help start Tiger rallies.

Which is why, of course, that today’s news from Major League Baseball is a bit disconcerting to gum connoisseurs and that is, sadly, that the tradition is coming to an end. As an article today notes:

Robertson’s superstition to throw wads of gum into his mouth became a Detroit phenomenon in 2006 during the summer and then during the Tigers’ run to the World Series. Eventually, it grew a little too big, and he lost his taste for constantly chewing gum in the late innings.

You can read all the details here.