John Colton's blog

Reported by: Matt Gephardt
Monday, June 13 2011

Alan wrote to 2News with a question; he wants to know how salt water taffy gets its name.

And when you ask a 'Good Question,' we give it to Matt Gephardt, who on Fridays, searches for the good answer.

At Taffy Town in Downtown Salt Lake City, they know a little something about salt water taffy.

Every day, they churn out hundreds of pounds of the goody-goodness. Well, an educated guess might have you assuming, that must take a lot of salt water.

But, Vice President Jason Glade says, there is no salt water in any salt water taffy.

Glade says, the name salt water taffy actually comes from the Atlantic City boardwalk on the east coast.

Legend is that more than 100 years ago, a massive wave crashed in from the ocean and flooded a taffy store, ruining all of the taffy.

When the owner re-opened, he jokingly called his product "salt water taffy."

And, like taffy to the roof of your mouth, it just stuck.

Glade says that when his great grandfather opened Taffy Town, proximity to the Great Salt Lake made calling his taffy "Salt Water Taffy," an obvious decision.

Generations later, the operation has expanded. Taffy Town now offers more than seventy flavors. Not one of them contains any salt water.

And, the sales gimmick seems to work pretty well. Taffy Town ships their product all over the world. There is a market for salt water taffy from the home of the Great Salt Lake.

# posted by John Colton @ 10:46 AM 0 comments

AMERICAN FORK — No matter how cool a teenager's mom and dad might be, few teens get through high school without feeling their parents embarrassed them.

And one teen has his dad to thank for embarrassing him the entire school year — well, 170 days of it.

When the high school's bus routes changed this year, 16-year-old Rain Price soon found out he'd be going right past his house every single morning. Much to his chagrin, he also found out his dad would be standing outside, waving.

"When he did it the first day, I was in shock," Rain said. "It's my first day of my sophomore year."

The embarrassment was a thrill for his father.

The second day of school, there he was again, only this time Dale Price was wearing a San Diego Chargers helmet and jersey. Day three, it was an Anakin Skywalker helmet, and the next day, swim trunks and a snorkel mask.

Other kids started to take note.

"Most of them like it, and we roll down our windows and wave. It's fun," Rain said.

His dad admits it took a lot of effort to keep it up, but said it was "a way of letting him know that we really care about him, but do something a little different." He described it as "a father's way" of saying I love you.

It ended up being a daily tradition for him, with a new costume each and every day.

"No recycling costumes, that's the rule," Price said. "I managed to adhere to that, and for better or for worse … we have some interesting costumes."

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"I hope this lives with him for the rest of his life," Price said. "He can use it against his kids and tell them, 'If you think you are embarrassed by me, you should have seen your grandfather.'"

# posted by John Colton @ 3:11 PM 1 comments

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Today the U.S.D.A. announced that they’ve killed off the dietary guidelines outlined by previous food pyramids released in 1991 and 2005—and have replaced it with a new diagram in the shape of dinner plate in response to rising obesity rates in children.

Gone is the basement level of the pyramid—the heftiest slab—a foundation of breads, starches and other carbohydrates. Gone is the mid section of fruits and veggies narrowing to the tiniest peak of fats, sweets and oils built on Bush-era dietary research that all fats were bad fats.

“We’re working to make healthy choices easy choices,” said Surgeon General Regina Benjamin at this morning’s unveiling, who linked the new diagram to First Lady Obama’s Let’s Move campaign. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack followed by explaining the need for the tool, “My Pyramid was simply too complex,” he said, and is confident the new tool will be effective is a “simple visual research based icon about proportion sizes and what should be on the American plate.”

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# posted by John Colton @ 8:26 AM 1 comments