Photo: © Todd Klassy, Flickr

 Sunday’s New York Times reports that Shaun White, of snowboarding and Stride gum commercial cameo fame, now has a Stride Gum named after  him “Whitemint” gum, which features a stylized Shaun on its package (see above). Maurice Herrera, who is senior director of United States gum brands for the food company Kraft, believes that Shaun will help skew Stride’s typical gum-chewing audience (18-24) even younger, noting in the article that “A lot of 10- to 12-year-olds hold Shaun in high esteem.” In addition to recent fame with gum, White was also named the second most powerful athlete earlier this year by Bloomberg Businesweek.

File photo, Associated Press, Washington Post

While the Wrigley company itself was sold to Mars just about three years ago,  the 90-year-old landmark building on Michigan Avenue in Chicago has just been sold to BDT Capital Partners of Chicago (Groupon holds a minority stake in the deal), who will seek landmark status for the building. Today’s Washington Post reports that “the chewing gum maker has been committed to securing new ownership for the building that would ensure its future and protect its legacy.”

Australia’s Brisbane Times reports on a late night robbery south of the city this past Wednesday evening where four stick wielding thieves (seen above) entered the store and sought not only cash but used their stick to smash cases and walk away with an unknown amount of chewing gum. Local residents who might recognize the thieves from the photo above are encouraged to contact the local Crime Stoppers at 1800 333 000 or crimestoppers.com.au. You can read the whole story here.

Macko is head of the “Seed, Stump, Art, Life” artists cooperative which helps war veterans learn new skills by creating handcrafted wooden furniture pieces, which have been featured most recently at Eco-Ethno Croatia fair. Despite suffering post-traumatic stress disorders following his service in the Croatian Homeland war in the 1990s, Macko says he has now dedicated his life to art and wood.

 As Macko notes in the article, this particular idea came to him as he struggled with the challenge of discarded gum — and an elegant solution to that problem:

The idea of a chewing-gum pillar came to him after he realised many people just did not know what to do with their chewing gum and threw it into the street. Now, they can just stick it onto the artistic pillar.

Split residents and tourists can see his work in the city centre.

Macko’s aim was to offer them a simple, unique, educational and ecological place for disposal of their gum.

He said the chewing-gum pillar required regular, special disinfection and frequent replacement by a new one.

He claimed the pillar was not only a practical but also an environmental solution because cleaning streets full of chewing gum was very expensive and required dangerous chemicals.

 To read the words (and history) that goes with this image, click here.