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My dying wish is for an owl/camel hybrid, which I call camowl.

Chex Mix Seasoning Packet from 1990, very exciting.

Thanks largely to the gamut of '80s/'90s Chex Mix commercials starring the Peanuts gang, I've come to consider no winter holiday complete without a trough full of buttered cereal and snacks drenched in Worcestershire sauce. I can't pronounce "Worcestershire," but I enjoy the invitation to smear it on Chex cereal.


While the good people at Chex HQ would have me believe that this "Chex Mix" was a holiday staple since the cereal's inception, I give all credit to Chuck Brown and his crew, who always managed to make everything they cooked and ate look so ridiculously palatable. I remember one Peanuts cartoon where the gang went to France, and there was this twenty minute scene where the non-French speaking Charlie Brown failed in his attempt to order "one loaf de bread." I ate nothing but loafs de bread for the month following that.

Then there was the classic Peanuts Thanksgiving feast; a glorious spread of jelly beans and ice cream sundaes that charmed my ass straight to the grocery store so I could attempt to recreate it. I can only describe the Peanuts gang's influence over what we find appetizing as something metaphysical if not outright occult. There's no logic behind it. It just is.

Little did you know that everything above was merely an introduction to a photo of a sealed Chex Mix seasoning packet from 1990. I took the long way home on this one.


I can't remember exactly how it came to be in my possession, but I've got what's likely the last remaining Chex Mix "Instant Party Seasoning Pack" in existence -- a cereal "premium" stuffed inside Chex boxes in 1990. Like the Ninja Turtles "Honey Ooze" I wrote about recently, I refuse to open this seasoning pack due to the high probability that it's the last of its kind.

My desire to preserve history is pretty annoying in this case, as I've never been able to truly master cooking up a batch of Chex Mix. I tell people that I'm good at it, but I know the truth: My Chex Mix needs work. I don't know if the various salts, sugars and tamarinds inside this polyurethane wrapped foil pack of dust has gone sour in the eighteen some odd years since its creation, but for the ultimate result of the perfect batch of Chex Mix, the risk/reward ratio seems to lean towards the latter.

Maybe a Chex Mix seasoning pack wasn't the most action-packed blog topic that I could've chosen, but it felt like I was fated to do this. Not ten minutes after finding the pack in one of my many cardboard trunks, I stumbled upon a 1990 magazine ad promoting the promotion:


Lucy totally went pinky-up, so you knew this shit was serious.

I've forged batches of Chex Mix for every Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday in recent memory, and eventually, I must assume that the law of averages will favor me with a bowl that tastes just right. Until such time, all I can really do is draw pictures of dinosaurs wearing sunglasses.


Happy SNT.

PS: In case you didn't catch the green note on the Trapper logo, we're set to move forward with X-E's Summer Megaparty as of July 1st. What this means: New blog posts everyday, at least for the month of July. Vegas odds are against this being a successful venture, but we can safely assume that there will be many, many more entries than usual. Feels like I should add an emoticon here, but I know it's kind of improper. Fuck it. :)

Posted by Matt on 06/07/2008. E-mail me!



Discussion Thread: 525 comments

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Dan, They are local to Fort Collins. Their website is:

http://gibsbagels.com/

Chestnuts roasted by drew do @ 06/09/2008 10:31 PM


Dammit Doho, don’t DO that! I almost thought I was going crazy.

Hey, I know I’ve been shillin’ like a villain for my blog site a lot lately, but I was cleaning the shower today and had a lot of thoughts about the people here and what XE means to me. So I wrote my thoughts on this place and the people here at my blog. It’s a decent sized essay, so I’ll be interested in XE’ers opinions. Especially Matt…;)

Chestnuts roasted by Terror Claws @ 06/09/2008 10:38 PM


I have a question to ask. Anyone here rent movies from Redbox? I first saw these when I was home on Leave in Chicago. At first I thought these were exclusively in Chicago since I had never seen one in Texas. Plus I mostly saw them outside Jewel supermarkets, and there’s none down here in Texas. There might be one in Austin but I’m not sure. Anyway, one day I’m online and decide to check out the Redbox website. I checked my local area to see if there were any locations. Turns out they were all over the place! Down here there at pretty much every McDonalds and Wal-Mart site within 100 mile radius! I guess it never registered in my mind that they would be at Wal-MArt because I only really rememebr them at Jewel. Anyway, now that I know they’re down here, it seems I can’t go by a McDonalds without checking to see if they have a Redbox and sure enough, I always manage to find one. Sometimes that’s the first thing I notice at the McD’s!

Anyway, I thought I’d mention that because I know people talk about renting movies from NetFlix and places like that. NetFlix doesn’t seem to work for me, and with the mail getting lost half the time, it would take forever for me to get any movies. I like Redbox because it’s only $1 a night, and sometimes I can find movies that just came out on DVD on there that the local Blockbusters have either sold out of, or haven’t put them on their shelves yet.

Anyway, there was something else I was going to mention. Here on post they have something similar to Redbox called DVD Rental. I think of it as the Army’s version of Redbox. It basically works the same way as Redbox where you touch a screen and go through movie titles the same way. You even get your DVDs in the same type of casing and pay the same way. Here’s the catch though. Supposedly when you’re on a military post, if you go shopping at the PX or Commissary or eat in the Food Courts, everything is tax-free. Renting from these Redboxlike boxes may seem as though you’re saving money. However, the charge for a movie a night is $1.49. Yes when you rent from Redbox there’s a tax but the fee is about eight cents. So basically the trick is that many products you buy on-post, excluding gas and food because gas is cheaper than it is off-post (though not by much) and restaurants are the same prices, costs you more but you don’t think that way because you’re told everything is tax-free. They just charge a little extra as the flat rate. Anyway, at first when I was renting at one of the DVD Rental boxes, I thought I was paying only $.99. True, that is the price, but when you look at the fine print, it says it’s that price on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and those days are the ones I am least likely to rent movies. Plus, unlike Redbox where you usually always have a fairly big selection, at least half the movies in one of these DVD Rental boxes is out stock. I did have little success though when I found they had a copy of The Departed. Really good movie, and I’m glad it was the one that finally got Martin Scorsese his much-deserved Oscar, even though he should have gotten it before for some of his other films such as Raging Bull, Goodfellas, or even Gangs of New York. Those are the Scorsese films I think of when I think what should have won him the Oscar.

Anyway, just thought I’d share that with you. As usual, I always hope for comments and who knows, I may have started a discussion on what films Martin Scorsese should have won the Oscar for Best Director, and it may span a life of its own and include other directors who didn’t win the Oscar for films they should have won it for. Let’s see, Spielberg? E.T. George Lucas? Star Wars (the first one at least) Francis Ford Copolla? The Godfather, oh wait, maybe he did win it for that. I know De Niro won Best Actor for Godfather II but I’m not sure about Copolla. Bob Zemeckis? Perhaps Back to the Future but definetly Who Framed Roger Rabbit! Okay, I could go on but I better stop before I create a monster that’s loses control and creates a life of its own!!!!

Chestnuts roasted by BJ @ 06/09/2008 11:06 PM


Yeah BJ, I’ve got those Redbox things everywhere around here and use em a lot. Never paid a dime though, since I use the Redbox code websites.

When I was on base (USAF) last summer, we had DVD Rental also. I was too busy training to use it. :( Later on we figured out that the library on base was full of WWII movies, and it became “watch us beat the Nazis” night for two weeks. LOL. Nazis suck.

BTW – ever looked into a blog? You’ve got some intense posts. Not that its a bad thing.

Dang, now I’m doin’ it. ;)

Chestnuts roasted by Terror Claws @ 06/09/2008 11:22 PM


Yeah Terror, and you’re like the second person on here who has so far asked me about starting a blog. I guess I need more encouragement and motivation. I keep fearing no one’s going to read what I have to say!

Chestnuts roasted by BJ @ 06/09/2008 11:25 PM


k, i was just laughing that tc said the same thing i did. seriously, kid, go for it. it may never be as big as x-e, but trust me, it will be read. people read my stupid shit all the time.

Chestnuts roasted by MaryJane @ 06/09/2008 11:28 PM


Yeah, that was my concern too BJ but for some odd reason, people do. Two things: link to your blog from here and know that if people are bored enough to hang here with no new posts, they’ll make the Tarzan-like swing from blog to blog.

Chestnuts roasted by Terror Claws @ 06/09/2008 11:33 PM


…but please note that blog plugs should be limited to people clicking your name because you’re active on the blog, not because you’re plugging it on-blog. :)

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 06/09/2008 11:42 PM


Okay, I’m going to make a note to myself and say that my goal for tomorrow is: WRITE A DAMN BLOG!!!! I would do it tonight except it’s getting late and I’m talking to someone online as well. In fact, I’m thinking of how I’m going to wind down. I got my George of the Jungle DVD set sitting next to me, but I think I need something as background noise and that would be something I would need to give my complete attention to. Perhaps I can pop one of my Carlin discs in or one of the two Jeff Dunham discs that I seem to be playing a lot lately and use it mainly for background noise.

Actually, my main concern more than not getting any feedback Terror was my concern that my posts on here if I were to link my blog page would not show up right away. I mentioned earlier that would link my MySpace page to my name when I was in Iraq and my post would either take a long time to appear on the site, or sometimes it wouldn’t appear at all. Of course, we did have slower connection speed out there and this time I would just be posting my blog page and not my whole profile.

Geez MaryJane, how old you think I am? I don’t know when the last time I was called kid which is weird because I’m the youngest in my family and have always had the “baby in the family” mentality. Of course that’s much different now being in the Army and dealing with peers who are younger than I am. I’ll be 30 in six months and I know fellow soldiers who are ten years younger than me who are married and raising one, two, and three kids. They make me feel old because I neither am married nor have any kids. I get the best, or maybe worst, of both worlds in my life!

Chestnuts roasted by BJ @ 06/09/2008 11:49 PM


i’m older than you (33 next month) so i win.

and matt, i hope you really don’t think we are just on here shilling our blogs. :(

Chestnuts roasted by MJ @ 06/09/2008 11:57 PM


Oh no no no, it’s just that it can get out of control when people start using the blog exclusively for that, which has happened before. My feeling is that if you’re here a lot and your name is clickable, people are going to click it just fine. :) I’ve made a lot of great friends on here by liking what they had to say and clicking into their names to find more of it.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 06/09/2008 11:59 PM


true dat.

Chestnuts roasted by MJ @ 06/10/2008 12:10 AM


Also, that was not directed at anyone! :) I hadn’t scrolled up the page too far so I hope it didn’t come off that way, hah. :)

I shouldn’t be awake.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 06/10/2008 12:11 AM


i was worried because tc was up there saying how he wrote a post on his blog about how much x-e means to him, and how he hopes you will read it, and then there you are saying “please dont plug your blog on the blog…” and i know you didnt know. now go read it, because it’s sweet.

Chestnuts roasted by MJ @ 06/10/2008 12:15 AM


nevermind…you did.

Chestnuts roasted by MJ @ 06/10/2008 12:18 AM


I did and commented…it was great. :)

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 06/10/2008 12:18 AM


Yeah I had a doof moment when I scrolled up. :)

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 06/10/2008 12:19 AM


it’s okay, you are allowed. and you should be in bed, young man! goodnight!!!

Chestnuts roasted by MJ @ 06/10/2008 12:22 AM


No sleep. Feels like a Friday.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 06/10/2008 12:23 AM


Or at least listen to DJ D’s show if you’re staying up ;)

It’s a love fest over at TC’s and a refresh fest over here. Happy Monday you guys!

Chestnuts roasted by squee4242 @ 06/10/2008 12:23 AM


DJ D better sound like the nicest person on the planet to match his online voice.

Holy shit I think I’m going to be up til 4.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 06/10/2008 12:25 AM


Matt, what’s the matter, can’t sleep? Don’t want to sleep?

So I’ve got a question for the blog land:

I’ve got a $25 Barnes and Noble gift card that a friend gave me “Just Because”

I have no idea what to spend it on. It’s free money, and I’m unemployed right now so this is a chance to get something fun that I couldn’t normally.

Problem is most of the things that I want that are dirt cheap on Amazon (For example: The Transformers DVD) aren’t on Barnes & Noble.

So…what suggestions does X-E land have for me? Weird Random books are cool….

Also, TC, your blog post on XE was awesome…

Chestnuts roasted by Cameron T. @ 06/10/2008 12:32 AM


3 Uncle John’s Bathroom Readers. Disregard the name, they’re awesome.

Far Side compilation books. Don’t bother with the complete set; the books are too heavy to freakin’ hold.

Fancy leatherbound journal which you will use for 3 weeks and then never again.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 06/10/2008 12:36 AM


Remember when I told you all I had the USS Flagg still in my basement? Not anymore! Sold it to some dude in Las Vegas, and it’s on it’s way now. Care to guess how much it is to mail a USS FLagg in the box? $156! That’s 56 bucks more than the frigging thing COST in 1985! Holee Crap! Anyone mailed something more expensive, and if so, what the hell was it?

Good thing Tiny Claws is a girl, because if you had a son that stumbled upon that…

And how much did the guy pay for it? I hope he had to pay S&H.

Chestnuts roasted by Invader Norbert @ 06/10/2008 12:42 AM


ATTENTION ALL BRAWL OWNERS!

I designed a Castlevania stage if anyone’s interested. Let me know and I’ll be happy to send it to whoever’s interested.

Chestnuts roasted by Hoverbored @ 06/10/2008 12:45 AM


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