Long Beach: The Secret To Living

By Lara Boyko - June 03, 2007

As blogged on Friday, I celebrated my 32nd birthday while UIC equipment manager Jim Negratti celebrated his 70th here at Blair Field.

Since I can only hope to make it to 70 and still able to attend baseball games, here are a few secrets to making it to this milestone according to Negratti via UIC SID John Jaramillo -- Mountain Dew and Milky Way candy bars.

That's right, Negratti is a big fan of the Dew and some nougat. I myself am a sucker for a Diet Coke or Pepsi -- big surprise, a woman who is a fan of the diet drinks -- and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

In honor of now knowing the way to making it to 70, here are some fun facts to chew on from milkywaybar.com:

- The MILKY WAY Bar was first created in 1923, with the idea of putting "A chocolate malted milk in a candy bar".
- A MILKY WAY Bar sold for 5 cents in 1926.
- The Vanilla MILKY WAY Bar was introduced in 1926. The name changed in 1936 to FOREVER YOURS Bar.
- The MILKY WAY Bar is called MARS Bar outside the U.S.
- The wiggly lines on the bottom of the bars come from the belt they ride on while cooling.
- The center of the bar is called nougat, which is made by whipping egg whites with other ingredients until light and frothy to make a frappe. Flavorings, such as cocoa and malt, are added to the frappe to create the signature flavor nougat.
- In 2005, Americans ate more than 200 million MILKY WAY Bars.

That's it, I'm ditching the diet.

Anyone else hungry right now?