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

Bubble Gum Girls, Italy, originally uploaded by SF buckaroo.

Fleer’s Dubble Bubble Gum ad, 1960s, originally uploaded by bayswater97.

Late in July, one of AndrewsGumWorld’s very first posts was a video of a lady blowing a world-record sized bubble on a Spanish television.

That lady’s name was Susan Montgomery Williams, and yesterday’s Fresno Bee reported on her untimely death last week at the age of 47.

As the earlier video attests, Williams’ bubble-gum blowing feats made it on to a number of television shows both throughout the United States and the world, and she also had her own website which chronicled some of those appearances, and describes the 19 1/4-inch bubble that brought her the world record in 1994 (and how she later broke it by blowing a 23-inch bubble on television).

As her obituary notes, she received notoriety not only for her record-making bubbles, but for the noises they made when they popped, which also led to arrests at a Smokey Robinson concert and outside a Fresno murder trial.

She will be best remembered, though, for blowing amazingly large bubble gum bubbles, far beyond those than most of us can ever imagine…or attempt.

Our condolences to her family and those who loved her.

Here are the opening lines of yesterday’s obituary:

Susan Montgomery Williams, a Fresno woman with a talent for blowing enormous chewing gum bubbles, parlayed that skill and a keen understanding of the news media’s enthusiasm for superlatives into eccentric international semi-celebrity.

Mrs. Williams, 47, died Wednesday of an aneurism after suffering a stroke the week before, apparently unrelated to her hobby.

She had painstakingly inflated her bubble gum abilities into appearances on the Johnny Carson and Jay Leno late-night television programs. Her talent won her travel for appearances on broadcasts in Spain, Germany, England and Japan.

Miriam, originally uploaded by framestealer.

The current online issue of Reliable Plant magazine reports on some recent research on workplace stress conducted by Eclipse gum and the Institute for Corporate Productivity.

It described many of the culprits that you might suspect…time pressure, office politics, deadlines and bosses…and some ways that employees themselves are trying to cope with that stress.

It’s a big problem, as the workforce leadership expert from the Institute for Corporate Productivity notes in the article, with two out of every three employees feeling as though they’re not getting the support they need from their employers.

That expert, Mary Key, suggests there are, at least, some small things that employees can do, and we’re happy to note that (perhaps not surprisingly, given one of the research’s sponsors) chewing gum has a role to play:

“The ability to cope with stress plays a large role in employee performance,” says Mary Key, workforce leadership expert for the Institute for Corporate Productivity. “We found that 65 percent of respondents do not feel their organization is effective in helping them manage stress. That leaves stress management to individuals. While alleviating the time pressures or getting a new boss may not be an option, people can use small tools to beat daily stresses at work, like going outside for a breath of fresh air, closing their eyes while slowly counting to fifty or chewing a piece of gum.”

While chewing gum may not have the same effect as a vacation, new research suggests it is an easy tool employees can turn to when they’re feeling stressed. A study presented August 30 at the 10th International Congress of Behavioral Medicine examined the effects of chewing gum in response to a stressor and found that the use of chewing gum was associated with reduced stress, improved alertness and relieved anxiety.

Relex Bear (Riratsu Kuma) Chewing Gum, originally uploaded by candybox.

Today’s The Peninsula, from Qatar, reports that many in that Emirate are frustrated with a growing practice by hypermarkets of giving chewing gum (or sweets), instead of actual change.

Here’s how the article describes the dilemma:

There is no shortage of 50-dirham (about US14¢±) coins in Qatar. This is contrary to what some hypermarkets and grocery store officials say to justify giving away cheap candies and chewing gums instead of the small denomination change.

Based on the Second Quarterly Statistical Bulletin for 2008 released by the Qatar Central Bank, there was QR11.52m worth of 50-dirham coins in circulation as of June this year. In other words, there were 23.04 million units of such coins in the country.

A recent post in Qatar Living (QL) entitled ‘Fifty Dirhams Robbery’ has solicited dozens of reactions from concerned residents with one respondent calling the act of giving out sweets that don’t sell instead of the 50-dirham change a ‘gum selling strategy’ of some hypermarkets and grocery stores.

Patents Pending, originally uploaded by Epiclectic.