cabel.com

Let’s pretend it’s January, because I’m ready and excited to present to you the #new chips, cookies, cereals, and assorted garbage I found in the wild during 2025!!

Last year, we started a new (temporary?) Panic tradition — at the very end of our Monday status meeting, I run through all the new snacks I’d found in the last week. Then we gather in the kitchen and try them. Either everyone is very accommodating or they’re just afraid to say anything, but it’s been a lot of fun.

(Sidebar: should we livestream our Monday taste tests? If so drop a comment in the chat. First I’d need to figure out how you do a so-called “live stream”)

I hope you enjoy this collection.

Along the way, I’ll try to call out anything particularly interesting.

Want to see more? Browse my #new posts trapped forever on Twitter, or read The Blog Is Back. (Also Snacks.), Some #New Snacks, #New Snacks July ’23, and finally, The Snacks & Cereals of 2024.

Snacks!!

Fine. I guess we’ll start with some chips. (For the record, I do not recommend the Salted Caramel Lay’s.)

Have I ever seen licensed Takis before? Do they hold an auction for this kind of thing? If so, Takis won and showed up this year with two Wicked-inspired flavors. Emerald Heat (Habanero & Cucumber) and Spellbinding Sweet (Sugar & Cinnamon).

Not to be outdone, Hostess clearly won the snack cake auction… but didn’t do anything notable, flavor-wise.

Just acknowledging out loud that there was a special Pringles × Miller Lite collaboration.

Kettle Chips: They’re Always Good®. Despite being acquired by the Campell Soup Company in 2018, this company keeps operating at a high bar — and is somehow still headquartered locally in Salem, Oregon.

And yes, these Chili Crisp chips were quite good. (Was this the first Chili Crisp chip?)

Let me make sure I understand this correctly: these Funyuns taste like Sour Cream and… Funyuns, creating a recursive loop that will crash most modern computers.

Back to it:

Now, this was interesting:

These four new Frito-Lay products are a perfect time capsule of 2025, because instead of SIMPLY NKD (naked), they might as well have been called SIMPLY RFK.

Inspired (threatened?) by the strongly-hoarsed beliefs of our current Secretary of Health and Human Services, Frito-Lay, in reportedly record-breaking dev time, turned around a full line of chips free of artificial flavors and dyes.

Here’s the thing. They’re good. They tasted great and didn’t leave my fingers permanently stained Flamin’ Hot Red. I don’t know how I feel about any of this. 2025.

Speaking of health trends, you’re going to see a lot of PROTEIN in these pages in the future… we’re in the throes of protein madness… see you next year. (These had a texture that did not work well for any of us.)

Let’s continue:

Now, a brief intermission:

What on earth is happening over at Cup Noodles???

(As a side note, I love how these labels have perfect “designed in Japan” graphic design layouts, especially the Pumpkin Pie. It looks kind of like a title screen in the DLC expansion of a Nintendo Switch game? I’m not sure how to quantify this, but I feel it. That type. Just me?)

Anyway, yes, we ate them!

The Pumpkin Pie was so sweet, it was borderline inedible. The Turkey Dinner was fine! Cup Noodles has discovered that morons like me will buy whatever thing they make.

I appreciate this.

Oh yeah they just kept at it.

Let’s continue:

A brief sidebar on these m&m’s. I was so excited for this product, because I love honey roasted peanuts. My dream: they were going to wrap honey roasted peanuts in chocolate and a candy shell, which seemed like it might be incredibly good.

The reality: the wrapped regular peanuts in chocolate, a candy shell, and a very strong and fake-tasting honey flavor.

This product was a crushing sadness.

Let’s keep going:

There was a very interesting Pringle bundle that popped up at the end of the year:

You get one “Mystery Flavor” of Pringles, and you get a “Pringamabob” — a figurine.

What was the “Mystery Flavor”, you ask?

Well, that’s certainly ONE way to get rid of unsold inventory! (Thanks, Kaleigh, for capturing this moment.)

I can’t stress how good and powerful the “Pringamabob” turned out to be:

Yes, I got a “SNAXOLOTL”.

I am hoping for a post-apocalyptic future where an alien civilization finds this buried in the earth.

Let’s continue:

(Those S’Mores were really good.) And now, a quick spotlight on Hostess:

Two celebrity-focused Oreo variations dropped:

“Posty’s Swirled Salted Caramel and Shortbread Flavor Creme” and “Selena’s Chocolate & Cinnamon Creme Cookies”. Both of them were pretty good! I appreciated the fancy packaging and the feeling of sharing a snack with some of my favorite stars.

Note: RITTER SPORT REMAINS UNDEFEATED.

Every single product they make is a slam dunk!! They have never failed. I loved this “Duo” line, getting two flavors in one was a treat, and a new size that no longer fits in a sport jacket. They all taste like real things. They’re so good.

I will once again hope that 2026 is the year I can visit Ritter headquarters. Let’s do it.

Continuing on,

(First of all those Sargento Cheese Bakes were good. Cheese really was the first ingredient!)

But I’d like to take a moment to discuss “Ritz Crackers Sunkissed With A Nice Tan”.

The really went for it with the foil packaging, but I think the idea here was that they turned up the oven a couple more degrees, so the Ritz were a little more toasted. It wasn’t super noticeable. But it was interesting! I might’ve just gone with “Ritz Extra Toasted”.

Some good news:

Dave must have gotten parole after the grisly murders* and is back to developing new products! These were pretty good and didn’t feel too gross!

* please note despite the company name, dave did not, in fact, commit any murders. just joking.

I spent a very long time looking at the back of this box. Why is there a milkshake? Who put a milkshake there? What does a milkshake have to do with Hot Honey Cheez•It? It’s a good looking milkshake. But what does it mean? Is it a Cheez•It milkshake?

This was never explained.

So, moving on,

It’s always fun when brands try to come at other brands. Lunchables × Uncrustables, fight:

The key differentiator here is “No Thaw”, but I’m sorry, dipping a peanut butter wedge into a thing of jam is just not the right experience. I do appreciate the attempt, Lunchables!

I’ve never in my life seen a dehydrated astronaut ice cream in “pop” form. What it lacked in curb appeal, it made up for in taste.

I gotta say I quite liked this Cheez•It Pizza. Ironically, we baked it in our fancy Ooni oven, deeply unnecessarily. While the crust wasn’t exactly 100% cracker-like — a little soggy — the flavor was good. And it bakes fast!

Now, from the department of “packaging vs. reality”, I present to you: Kinder Kinderini.

“There is absolutely no way the product is going to look that well-defined looking guy”, I said to myself.

I was not wrong.

It was worth a shot. I like how suspicious he looks about the whole situation.

This year also brought a big Oreo × Reese’s moment:

Which were mostly… good? The Reese’s Oreo was much better than the Oreo Reese’s, which was hard to distinguish from an average Peanut Butter Oreo.

In Kraft Mac & Cheese News,

Yeah, they made Apple Pie Mac & Cheese. Hey, it’s Midwest O’Clock Somewhere!

New Uncrustables flavors are rare, so these surprised me. The “12G Protein” was the result of basically doubling the amount of peanut butter, which, frankly, I liked.

And it took a lot longer than expected, but 2025 was the year Big Candy® finally attempted to cash in on the State Fair Freeze Dried Candy trend.

Not content with letting the little guy resell their product in a Ziplock bag with a laser-printed label, no food handling permit, and a huge markup, the big guys are reselling their own product at a huge markup, instead! In general, I think these are really good. But I don’t know if they’re a temporary novelty, or something that’ll stick around.

And I always have to take note of the “Flavor Finalists” we get each year. The winner of this one, if you’re curious, was Bacon Grilled Cheese.

This is one of the worst things I’ve ever eaten in my entire life, bar none. Don’t do it. Cat food.

Talk about time capsules. What will 2027 think of this product? What do YOU think of this product? My teenage son thought it was funny. (And actually, the flavor was extremely good!)

I just want to point out that Buldak (The Stomach Lining Killer®) makes a Swicy flavor, and that flavor includes a small packet of sugar granules you sprinkle on top. This is true innovation.

Let’s continue, with some drinks and such. I think Sprite+Tea was a win, and the Campbell’s Grilled Cheese & Tomato was another highlight:

Finally, while I don’t drink coffee, I bought these on clearance for the office.

Did people like them? Let’s just say, they were on clearance.

I was surprised to see an entirely new entrant in the “snack cake” territory — Wonder, of the Bread Wonders.

I think the packaging is clean and nice, and the product itself super cute. The cupcake was the favorite.

And now, a quick moment of scientific research!!

The nation was rocked as Chex Mix declared themselves to be “NOW, CHEX-TRA DELICIOUS”?!?

What magic could they have done to improve an already generally fantastic snack? Well, first of all, they got rid of the bagel chips. And second of all…

…you’ll notice something in the new ingredients on the right — monosodium glutamate! (A reminder: MSG is not bad for you. No need to comment if you disagree lol.)

We decided to do a blind taste test in the office.

It’s hard to see in the photo, but the CHEX-TRA DELICIOUS version, on the left, is darker and more strongly seasoned. Which one did everyone like? The real-life progress bar appeared quickly:

The CHEX-TRA DELICIOUS recipe was unanimously preferred more than the classic Chex-Mix recipe. Chex wasn’t lying. Good job, Chex.

Who knew that a little MSG could make such a big difference?! (Hint: everybody knew. We all knew.)

This concludes the snack portion of the post. Now let’s take a look at

Cereals!!

Things were a little more reserved this year on the cereal front, but there are still some notable discoveries.

I could eat the entire box of Caramel Corn Chex happily in a single sitting, I bet. The texture is so good and it’s a great dry snack. Mexican Hot Chocolate Cinnamon Toast Crunch was good too!

I always love seeing how graphic designers approach 2000s nostalgia. The font choice in the green banner at the top of that box isn’t too bad, but there should be some more layer effects.

Cocoa Loops is the rare major brand extension that I find interesting. Not content with just Cocoa Krispies, I guess Kellogg’s is still chasing after Cocoa Puffs.

And please notice that Froot Loops Scoops “Cools Your Mouth”.

This one was interesting:

A rare dual-cereal mix. We determined that this one worked well dry, but turned into something quite different (negative) when mixed with milk.

And finally, what an incredibly wild box:

The cereal itself was heavily maple syrup flavored (and scented), with “Upside Down Marshmallows”…

…including “Flashlight”, “Demogorgon”, and “d20”.

But I was absolutely not prepared for this:

Soak that image in. Stare at it. Live it.

We all enjoyed the addition of the zipper just in case you thought Toucan Sam was, truly, a demogorgon.

And there you have it for cereals!

Now, before we leave… there was one last treat from 2025 that we mustn’t’nt forget…

Yes. You know it. Mountain Dew Baja Blast Pie.

This powerfully-hued pie was, shall we say, controversial. Some in the office loved in, and equated it to a humble, PepsiCo-developed variant of your traditional key lime. Others were put off by the piquant pungentness of an aquamarine abomination.

I liked it.

And that’s it for 2025!!

Thank you for joining me for another year of garbage. See you next year!

Yours,
Cabel

This post is about a found mural, a lost artist, and a conference talk. It’s the full story of Wes Cook and The McDonald’s Mural. Grab a beverage, sit back, relax, and thank you for joining me.

Ten years after giving my first talk at XOXO, Andy (Baio) and Andy (McMillan) asked if I’d like to do another one at what would be the last-ever XOXO in late 2024. Conference talks are like anxiety bouillon cubes for me, but sadly, I also really enjoy sharing things. The good news is, the older I get, the easier it seems to get. So, I said yes.

The only part of my talk I had fully formed in my pitch, word-for-word, was the very end.

And so, I gave my second XOXO talk.

Here it is.

Thank you for watching it.

If you enjoyed that, I’d like to tell the full story. (If you didn’t enjoy it hey that’s cool too.)

But first, I’ll be spoiling an important moment! So…

Don’t Read Until You’ve Watched!!

Just to be safe, here’s a scrollfrog.

(…yeah it’s actually a toilet paper holder.)

Is the coast clear?

Again, thank you for watching my talk. This will sound like a joke or maybe gentle sarcasm but it isn’t: we don’t have a lot of spare time on this planet and you giving up 19 minutes to watch me tell my weird story means a lot.

Now, here’s what I didn’t have time to talk about.

Photographing The Mural

“I have no problem with the Photography as long as I get a week notice of day and time of your arrival.” —McDonald’s Franchisee

After learning about “Vision 2020” from a collector — the McDonald’s initiative which, as a I note in the talk, you did watch the talk right?, would require all McDonald’s to remodel by 2020, and remove any trace of Ronald — I really began to sweat about the mural. So, I would occasionally email the franchisee, and see if there was anything I could do to preserve it.

Assuming the chance of saving the mural was slim, a high-resolution photo seemed like the next best saving bet.

And, amazingly, the franchisee agreed to let me do it!

I reached out to photographer Aaron Lee, who does wonderful work and seems always up for adventures, and asked if he could come up and do a multi-photo-stitched giant capture of the mural for permanent safekeeping.

We hit the road.

Everyone at this McDonald’s was so incredibly nice and supportive — they had even set out little “Reserved” signs the tables. Despite a lot of curious looks from customers, we got to work.

First, we had to remove the ancient Nintendo 64s (!) that were blocking a clear view of the mural. It was a dusty expedition:

Trivia: the KidzPace 1-800 number still works!

Then it was time to take lots and lots of big pictures.

While I was there, I also poked around the trim to see if it was possible to remove it — just in case someday I could do such a thing.

I edited a little video of our photoshoot. Enjoy!

…yes I wrote some “Lo-Fi Lovin’ It” music for this

Aaron did an awesome job and the resulting photograph, of course, turned out amazing.

The finished photo is a whopping 3 gigabyte TIFF file, and I immediately felt less stress about possible demolition.

The photo can always be found here, on wescook.art!

Saving the Mural

“Hi Cabel: The lobby construction starts May 6th so getting the Mural removed which would be your responsibility would have to occur on May 6th or 7th. Let me know.” —McDonald’s Franchisee, April 23rd

The franchisee made it clear a couple of times over email that she wasn’t interested — or wasn’t able — to part with the mural.

That was, until one day, she changed her mind… and I received the above message from her.

Holy smokes. I had just a handful of days to drive up to Centralia and somehow — somehow — find a way to save that mural.

How on earth was I going to do this? Was it painted directly on the wall? Would I have to cut it out as a giant rectangle of drywall? Would I have to rent a big truck? Where would I put that? A storage unit?

I drove up with my friend/co-worker Greg Maletic — and my dad, Stephen Sasser.

And with a guy eating a Big Mac directly to my left, I started using a crowbar to pull off the trim. Easy enough:

Then, the most incredible thing happened.

We thought, heck, this feels like it’s painted on a canvas… what if the canvas was just glued to the wall?

I grabbed a corner, and all of us stood in amazement as the mural pretty much cleanly peeled right off the wall!!

We were stunned. It was terrifying, but it worked. What are the odds it would be that easy!?

So we rolled Wes’s mural up… and we were done.

A surprise postscript: after removing the mural, a secret message was revealed, long since hidden!

I think the McDonalds must have opened without the mural — so somebody just wrote “COMING SOON!” in pencil on the empty wall, all the way back in 1980.

Mural in hand, we drove straight to the Panic office.

This Wes Cook mural was now safe.

The Little Adjustment…

In our email exchange, the McDonald’s owner said one small thing that I couldn’t stop thinking about:

“Also it is a long story but I had to have a local artist make an adjustment in the Mural many years ago so I am sure that makes the Mural pretty much worthless.” —McDonald’s Franchisee

…what?

A local artist made “an adjustment” to the mural?!

I had a feeling I knew what it was. And it was…

The udder.

The franchisee explained:

Years after the mural was installed, a woman and her daughter were sitting next to the mural, enjoying their Happy Meal or whatever, and their eyes gradually and slowly turned to the udder.

As they stared ever-closer at the dangling dairy device, they quickly came to the conclusion that the udder was a little too detailed… a little too phallic…

The udder looked a little too much like a… you know. And so, they threatened to sue.

For real. The daughter was traumatized, you see. This art was willfully malicious! The emotional damage simply could not be measured. I wonder what it looked like?!

To help appease and/or settle the pending lawsuit, the franchisee actually hired a local artist to “retouch” the udder. If you look closely — and I’m sorry for that — you can see how the paint was worn down to the canvas.

And so, the udder was blunted, and society was saved.

It’s an incredible story. A classic overly litigious, only in America, Saul Goodman moment. Manufactured outrage. Quick cash. Sometimes an udder is just an udder!

But… please, stick with me here… I think there is a chance that that highly detailed not-quite-an-udder was maybe not an accident. Maybe… Wes did it on purpose.

To make my (weak) case:

1. Remember the infamous “McDonald’s Triptych” in my talk? This firmly establishes that Wes had a good sense of humor, and a very real rebellious streak.
2. Based on my files, Wes often drew figures that were… rather detailed down under. (Like Unicus, see below.)
3. Finally, as a closeted gay man, what funnier way for Wes to get a little bit of bright, colorful, hidden-in-plain-sight McRevenge on the confines of a society that couldn’t yet accept him as his true self?

Ok, fine, maybe I’m just dreaming of some McMalicious Compliance. I know we’ll never know the truth.

But, now you know the story.

More Murals

Let’s talk a little bit more about these murals in general.

First, check out this absolutely incredible Setmakers promotional video about how they make their murals:

This video was posted to YouTube by Heritage Auctions, back when they had a big auction of Setmakers stuff.

That’s indeed Wes Cook (hair/mustache/glasses) on film working with, I think, Dane Weaver. At this point, I can tell the difference between their work — Wes was the true expert. It’s amazing this was captured on film.

Oh and, did you catch that “France” mural at the end of the promo video? With the Eiffel Tower and the bicycles?

Unbelievably, about a year before my talk, this exact Wes Cook McDonald’s Mural masterpiece showed up on eBay!

Since I’m already one mural in the hole, I had to let this one float by. But it’s just as good as I’d expect.

(I wonder who bought it.)

The Remodel

When the McDonald’s remodel started up in Centralia, I couldn’t wait to sneak up there and creep around — because I was dying to know what would replace the mural.

Yes, I must confess: I was “DELICIOUS BURGER” spoiler’d.

Here are some pictures from the buildout, just for the historical record!

Preparing the Talk

One weird note about this talk — it was all drafted in my head. I never opened a document and started writing a script, and I didn’t even write down a rough outline in notes. I would just do this imaginary talk over and over and over in my mind until I knew exactly what I wanted to say and in what order. Every time I got to the end of the talk in my mind, I would tear up a little bit. Then I sat down and slammed out some slides.

I wonder if I can ever do anything like that ever again?

Anyway: here’s my XOXO ’24 Keynote file (780 MB .zip).

Don’t Miss the Website!

Right after giving the talk, I launched a brand new website to preserve and share my collection of Wes Cook artwork.

Click to Visit:

The Reaction

If you don’t mind, this section will be less about the mural, and more about… me. I’m sorry. I’m a little uncomfortable with this. But I think it’s a good idea to write down these memories while I still have them.

Giving that talk, and revealing the surprise at the end, was one of the greatest moments of my life. Bar none. As the lights dimmed and the projector screen slowly raised to reveal the mural — it took a very long time, it was shortened in the video — I remember hearing a singular “oh my god” from somewhere in the front that slowly built into a mix of gasps and cheers. I think people stood up? I can’t really remember. It was… better than I dreamed.

This crowd really got it. I wouldn’t expect anything less from XOXO.

My only regret is that I was too nervous to slow down and really soak the moment in, as every instinct in my body telling me to get off the stage immediately. But if I try really hard, I can put myself back up there for a just one moment, and, frankly, I always tear up thinking about it.

The XOXO Slack, much to my delight, immediately seized on the comical absurdity of “DELICIOUS BURGER” as a meme-for-the-moment. The DELICIOUS BURGER Slack reaction was almost instantly created. And as some people began their drives back to Seattle (or wherever), DELICIOUS BURGER selfies started to pour in.

(I still occasionally get DELICIOUS BURGER photos from all around the world. Turns out they really made a lot of those signs.)

The extra talented Lynn Wu went the extra mile:

“Jeff and I were unable to make the pilgrimage to Centralia to visit the DELICIOUS BURGER mural in-person, so I made a mini version to pay homage at home.”

Yes, a 3D-printed DELICIOUS BURGER wall! Incredible.

Zoë Wolfe is the one who captured DELICIOUS BURGER with her super cool Game Boy Camera setup, and it turns out she also managed to capture my mural reveal, Game Boy-style.

Later, I got an email from Michelle that blew my mind:

I watched your video about Wes Cook after my partner, a big fan of Playdate, showed it to me. He had mentioned how much he loved Wes Cook’s McDonald’s Triptych. So, for Christmas, I had an artist friend of mine, Doyung Lee, recreate the full Triptych so I could give it to my partner in t-shirt form. Attached is a photo of him looking pleased with his shirt.

Unbelievable.

And finally, you must witness this unbelievable Etch-A-Sketch® rendition of The Mural, done by Jonathan Liu.

Also, my friend, former Panic team member, and publicly traded human K. Mikey Merrill sent me this just wonderful in-the-moment video he captured of Kathryn Borel Jr having just watched the talk.

With her permission, I thought it was too touching not to share here:

Ok, one last little personal story.

After giving the talk, I immediately went outside and laid down on a park bench for 15 minutes or so, a moment of adrenaline reset punctuated only by my watch repeatedly telling me that my heart rate was too high. Eventually the last talk of the day finished, and I took the chance to say hello to friends new and old.

Then I was called back into the theatre — it was time to unclip the mural from the pipe, roll it up, and go home. A small and very cool crowd was gathered on stage to look at it up close, which I appreciated because I would’ve (obviously) done the exact same thing.

When I stepped out of the building, mural on my shoulder, I experienced something that I had only ever seen in movies or television shows. A few people saw me carrying it and began to applaud. A few people looked over, curious about the applause, and also started applauding. Before I knew it, hundreds of people gathered outside the building for the festival who had seen my talk were applauding. It was the “everyone started clapping” meme, but, like, absolutely real??? It happened. I was there.

And since I wasn’t on stage — I was fully present — I will never, ever, ever, ever forget it.

To everyone at XOXO, thank you so much for your heart.

And that’s the story of giving my talk.

Thank You

On the Wes Cook front, my deepest thanks to Brian Kuehn, David Doherty, Christopher Merritt, Steve LePore, and Tom Morris, all very talented and very busy people, for taking their time to fill in so many missing pieces of the Wes Cook puzzle. Without them, this talk would be empty.

All of this was possible only thanks to the thoughtful owner of a certain McDonald’s in Centralia, Washington.

And of course so many thanks to Andy Baio and Andy McMillan for believing in me and believing in this idea (and filming it!)

Thanks to you for reading this too-long blog post.

And of course, above all else: thank you, Wes.

What Next?

Phew. So what the heck do I do with this mural now?!

I’m thinking that later this year (2026) I might hang it up in the Panic office so you can come see it in person.

If you’re interested in seeing it, please fill out this very short form!

And with that… I think this post officially closes a nearly 10-year-long sidequest in my life. On to the next one. I wonder what it will be?

Best,
Cabel

PS: a reminder that if you, or someone you loved, bought the “McDonald’s Triptych” eBay auction, please contact me!

PPS: if nothing else, yes, Wes now has a Wikipedia page.

When I was kid, on a road trip with my family, we stopped in Vacaville, California. And there, drawing us off the freeway with a wooden glow, was a brand new roadside attraction: Wooz. The pitch? It was a maze. A big maze.

Wooz stood for “Wild Original Object with Zoom” (!), opened in 1988, and was built by Sun Creative Systems from Nagoya, Japan. You would pay $7 and try to walk through a giant maze as quickly as possible, getting four stamps along the way to prove your progress.

You might say Wooz was ahead of its time, in a world where seasonal corn mazes are a now normal, expected thing. (Trivia: the first corn maze appeared in 1989, one year after Wooz’s opening!)

I remember it being extremely hot, and I remember a lot of kids cheating by crawling under the walls, and I also remember that you couldn’t run, which was super annoying, but absolutely American-lawyer-driven.

But above all else, I remember the mascot character drawings being really unique and interesting — not like anything I had ever really seen. A critical tantalizing pre-internet kid window to a Japanese culture that was right on the brink of becoming mainstream in America.

My folks got me a t-shirt!!

Why am I bringing any of this up? Uhh good question.

I recently came across a TV clip on YouTube of an episode of “That’s Incredible”, featuring Apple co-founder Stephen “Woz” Wozniak racing at Wooz! I was delighted by this, so I edited it down to Just Woz®, to maybe delight you.

Enjoy!

(Is it me, or can you clearly hear Woz say “finish!” when he saw the finish sign/door?! So why did he turn around!?)

Ultimately, Wooz did not make a dent in the universe. Woz did! But now you know that it at least existed. And I can only imagine how excited the television producer must have been when they shouted “we gotta getta Woz in a Wooz!”

Oh, after closing in 1992, but before becoming a car dealership in 2000, the Vacaville Fire Department burned Wooz to the ground. Training exercise, or just a fun time?

If anyone wants to make bootleg Wooda shirts let me know.

Best,
Cabel

Long ago, I was in the studio audience of a local PDX TV kids show called Ramblin’ Rod. “Local kids show” is a format that is completely lost to time, which is pretty wild, because it was such a thing. Think Krusty the Clown — kids sitting in a studio, a goofball host, time filled with lots of old cartoons.

I have strong memories of going to the studio. I even mentioned it (randomly) at the start of a GDC talk I gave in 2024, including some heartbreak.

But I always wondered if my memory matched reality.

Then, a month ago, my dad found the tape. It’d been sitting in our basement, never-watched — a friend of my dad’s used his Betamax® VCR to tape the show, and we never had a Betamax® player to watch it.

There’s a guy in town that can digitize Betamax tapes. And he digitized it for $25. (Did a great job.)

So, for the first time in 40 years, let’s watch some selected highlights from The Ramblin’ Rod Show on 2/8/1984… together.

(If nothing else, you’ll see a very small me, a very good Pac-Man Cereal ad, and a very weird cartoon.)

BONUS: you can watch the entire hour-long episode, including commercials, over on the Internet Archive.

One thing I can’t quite explain about this: it doesn’t feel super old or nostalgic to me, it still feels strangely fresh. All of this material is still so present in my brain, every song, every intro, even the commercials I know by heart, still. Sure, all the trappings are retro, but we see new retro things every week (like, uh, Blippo+!). It’s a weird feeling.

Also, in my GDC talk, I said that Shannon and I both did a goofy face where we rolled our eyes back making weird creepy all-white eyes. (That was his idea.) But looking at this tape, those eye-rolls are nowhere to be seen! I’m shook. I was 100% certain that’s what happened. Why did I remember it that way? Did we maybe do it in a rehearsal? Was there a rehearsal? I’ll never know. I guess memory is like a jacket covered in buttons — it can only hold so much, and it sure jangles a lot when you move.

“Ramblin’ Rod” Anders passed away in 2002. The show ran from 1964 to 1997. In 1989, he estimated he had been given 15,000 buttons for his sweater. “I’m a good person. This is a good life. We can make the best of it, and we can be all right.”

But yes, I’m still mad at Shannon.

Yours,
Cabel

Welcome to 2025. The vibes are a little heavy, so, I’m trying very hard to focus on the things I can control — and yes, that includes remembering to share things that delight me like the latest #new snacks and cereals I find at the grocery store!!

Yeah. It’s an age-old, very-odd Cabel tradition.

This time, I thought I’d do a yearly summary. And, while I’m not providing any emoji ratings — just try them yourself and form your own dang opinion, ya dingbat — I will pause every now and then to call out a few things.

I firmly believe these posts serve as an archive of peak human achievement — Smithsonian, you have my number.

(Want more? Browse my entombed #new discoveries over on Twitter [RIP], or read post #1 and post #2 and post #3 here on my blog.)

Snacks !!

Potato Shreds hold a special place in our collective Panic hearts, because they were a strong presence at PAX, not far from our own booth, and they were handing out incredible quantities of sample Potato Shreds. There was also a giant potato and fork you could hold for photos. I really enjoy the sound of “Potato Shreds”, because it sounds a bit like a licensed 90’s Sega Genesis Game, programmed by Core. And it takes some guts to try to capture the instant Mac n’ Cheese cup market, but potatoes. I’d wish Idahoan the very best on this dynamic new product but I think it’s already been discontinued.

Let’s pause for a moment to talk about Ritter Sport. So, fine, I admit it — most of the stuff in these posts is, generally, garbaggio (Italian for ‘garbage’). Ritter Sport is not garbage. Ritter Sport is incredible. The flavors taste like actual things. The quality of the chocolate is quite good. The “Sport” shape (designed to fit in your SPORT COAT) is both a wonderful square and feels great to break apart. And the company? Seems great. Yes, they’re still a family company that has not been sold to Unilever or Nestle! Yes, they seem to take great care of their team! Yes, they have a giant collection of geometric abstract art at their HQ!? It is a life-long dream of mine to visit the Ritter factory in Germany, just to say thanks in person. I hope I get to do it someday. To be clear, I am not sponsored by Ritter Sport, but I would pay good money to be! (Is that how that works?) In conclusion, all of these bars were good, eat them.

The big breakthrough in the Reese’s line recently seems to be Some Kind Of Viscous Liquid At The Base technology, or SKOVLATB — ironically also the name of my favorite IKEA couch!, is one possible joke. It started with this caramel version, and they recently followed it up with a kind of a fudge. Does it improve what is already a nearly perfect candy product? Not really. Is it fun? Yes

This is not a new product — but it was new to me. My parents got this bag of Indian Gup Shup Peanuts at Costco, and they were a smash hit snack around Panic Towers — crunchy coated peanuts, super well seasoned. I can’t recommend them enough. The only hitch: if you’re me, you sing “Gup Shup Peanuts” to the tune of “Zoot Suit Riot”

I had high flavor hopes for Dirt Cake Oreos — mostly because I thought the texture of gummy worms would actually work pretty well paired with creme filling! But, alas, these only featured “Gummy Worm Inspired Spinkles On Top”. Booooooo! No chew, no sale. I also want to call out Mondelēz interesting new serving size visualization — as if the calorie count is thinking a lot about what it truly represents. I like it!

I don’t have a lot to say about this Oreo flavor, except I can’t stop thinking about the words “Sugar Inclusions”.

Every year brings at least one or two nearly-inedible novelty products, and this was a big one. There’s not a single person on the planet that wished their potato chip would taste like “world famous breakfast flavor”. But here we are, regardless, suffering endlessly at the hands of flavor scientists. They weren’t good.

This was a remarkable shape innovation — the first Cheeto puff shaped like a tiny little pepper. It’s just so cute!!

These two Lay’s “Flavor Drop: Global Edition” chips were honestly fantastic. Very rarely has a limited flavor been a smash hit. I guess it helps that they’re just importing the best from elsewhere — but please, keep doing it.

Chili Cheese Fries? Good! Philly Cheesesteak? Also good! But, oh my lord: Everything Bagel. See, on paper, it sounds fantastic, right? Classic Everything Seasoning®, sprinkled on a curved Pringle dried potato wafer. EXCEPT FOR ONE SMALL PROBLEM. Their vision of an “Everything Bagel” flavor INCLUDED THE DANG CREAM CHEESE. Artificial cream cheese is not great on a good day, but on a Pringle? NO.

Just a quick callout on Rold Gold Selects. It’s always amazing to me when a new product in an existing category shows up and dominates — I’m thinking about Dot’s Pretzels, now owned by Hershey (?) — and the old guard just can’t let anybody else have a piece of the pie and has to just completely copy the entire product. These are Dot’s Pretzels except there’s a sweet one and a Doritos Cool Ranch one. They were great. That’s what you get for trying to succeed, Dot’s!

(Yes, those are Bridgerton-branded baking mixes.)

NO. For a “New!” guy, this is a genuine crime! YEAR-ROUND AVAILABILITY DOES NOT A NEW MAKE!!

When the moon hits your eye, like a big-a pizza pie-a — Meltamoré, is not the name of this product, but it really should’ve been. The idea that you can heat up a Hostess product seemed like an innovation — but the result wasn’t.

I just have to take a moment to appreciate the naming team for coming up with PRINGLES MINGLES. They’re two flavors, mingling together! I’m not being sarcastic, it’s a world-class name (and fun logo!), even if I think the product might be short-lived — because these were neither Pringley-enough nor Mingley-enough.

I just realized that most of my callout paragraphs here are focused on bad things and, unfortunately, this is no exception. Of all the chips we tasted last year, these were by far everyone’s least favorite: Doritos Baja Fiery Mango featured a kind-of rotten super artificial bathroom-cleaner mango flavor that was simply too strong and too painful. Bad shark

Top Ramen is really on a roll lately, having discovered that rubes like me love a novelty ramen flavor. The S’Mores one? Honestly not that bad — kind of like a cup of Swiss Miss with some noodles in it. The Everything Bagel had a weird cream cheese funk. (I’m not sure why I took a picture of these ingredients, except maybe to call out the powerful combination of Cocoa, Molasses, Honey, Onion Powder, and Sucralose.)

We finished 2024 with this new Oreo, and I can’t figure out why it needed a whole-dang sub-brand — LOADED — when we’ve already had Blizzard flavored Oreos, which is this. Why not just call this “Cookies and Creme Oreos”? It can’t be denied that the concept of making an Oreo filled with Oreos is truly a Nobel-level innovation, which once again gives me an excuse to try to popularize the word: Oreoboros.

Finally, Doritos rang in the new year by dropping this new flavor which is… quite genuinely great! With a great package! It feels like it should be made permanent! It’s spicy, it’s sweet, and it has a unique genuine pepper flavor that we all loved. Seek them out, and enjoy.

Cereals !!

Before we get into it, I found this fascinating: a “New & Improved” callout, that actually seems… new and improved! Compare the old ingredients (right) with the new (left), as the new adds both Milk Chocolate and Semi-Sweet Chocolate as ingredients. That seems pretty important for, you know, a Kit Kat flavor. It’s almost like they tried to see if they could get away with the first receipt, and just didn’t.

I can’t quite figure out this Ghost cereal, as it’s entirely bereft of General Mills branding, and I don’t know what Ghost is. Why hide General Mills? I’ve also never seen a box say “Made with Lucky Charms Marshmallows” before. Weird!

(Sorry, real quick, somebody called Crumbl cereal “Gentrified Cookie Crisp”, 100% spot on.)

All of these Glazed cereals dropped at once, and it’s an interesting study. They obviously want “Glazed” to be a brand, but they’re not confident enough to make it wholly original — they had to hitch it to existing brands to get a jump start. I do generally like the design (except for that god damned apple), and that the “Family Size” banner is in an interesting font, but I did not enjoy hundreds of tiny vanilla glazed donut balls.

Folks, again: nothing beats retro packing designs, ever. They are almost always, without exception, better than work done today!! Also, this reintroduction tells me that General Mills never destroys a mold — this is the exact same cereal shape as 1993’s Sprinkle Spangles.

It must mean something. At the very end of the year 2024, General Mills decided to make a F•R•I•E•N•D•S cereal. This is exciting for someone, or many someones, for some reason, or many reasons, and it’s not for me to judge, or to question, just to accept and let the cereal pour over me. If they made a Donkey Kong cereal again I’d be so happy but I understand and accept and agree that someone else would look at it and be all “ugh god why Donkey Kong now?”. I get it. But also I need to be honest, I’ve never seen a full episode of Friends. I know there’s a funny guy named Joey and they spend a lot of time in a coffee shop and yes I know there’s a “Smelly Cat” song, I’ve seen a clip of that, and that’s really it. I think Jessica loved Ross, right? All the people seem nice and I know British people love this show, so it must feel like peak America. Is there a maybe brand new VHS box set of episodes that just came out? Is that why they made this? I wonder how much it cost to produce this. They had to develop the flavor, at minimum, unless it was already sitting on the shelf for an aborted Starbucks Cereal product. And then at least had to pay their designer, or multiple designers?, to do the box art/template. I wonder what the budget was and how much they need to sell to break even. How much from each box sold do we think goes to the license holder? And then, how is that royalty split up amongst the show creators, the production companies, the cast? Actually, do we think any of the cast actually get a cut of merchandising like this? Is it possible Joey gets a little cereal check every month? I really hope so. They all seem nice. Maybe “The One With The Vanilla Bean Latte” helps them all out a little. It must mean something.

Anyway, uhh, I hope you have a great 2025!! Let me know if you find any cool snacks or cereals.

Yours,
Cabel