The Candy Bar That Was Discontinued For a Purely Selfish Reason

PB Max is a little known but popular candy bar first produced in the year 1989. The PB Max bar contained a combination of peanut butter, milk chocolate, and cookie pieces. Unlike most discontinued products, sales weren’t a factor in Mars’ decision to stop making it. Instead, it was because the Mars family had a healthy dislike for peanut butter. Nobody knows for sure whether there was a peanut allergy running through the Mars family, or if they all just weren’t fans of peanut butter. Although sales of the bars brought in $50 million, it wasn’t enough to save the candy bar. Fans of the PB Max still won’t let go of their love for the bar. There are blogs online that talk about it, and there’s even a Facebook page dedicated to bringing the bar back. The possibility of Mars bringing back the candy bars is slim at best. It’s likely that it will take a change in leadership to ever make that happen.

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The Great Cranberry Scare Of 1959

On November 26, 1959, Mamie Eisenhower didn't serve cranberry sauce with Thanksgiving dinner. The problem wasn’t the berries, which remained palatable under the usual mountain of sugar. When scientists found traces of a carcinogen in a batch of cranberries, the government issued a food warning. Across the nation, people panicked, and even though the contamination was limited, the cranberry industry ground to a halt. Overnight, a $50 million-a-year business collapsed. November sales of fresh cranberries dropped 63% from the year before and canned sales were down 79%. It didn't help that the White House, for its Thanksgiving dinner that year, replaced cranberry sauce with applesauce. Needless to say, the cranberry business survived. In fact, it went on to thrive. Today, Ocean Spray — the leading grower — earns approximately $2 billion annually.

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The 2020 Bentley Continental GT Is a Technological Wonder

There’s a thin slice of Australia in Bentley’s new Continental GT. Australian-grown Eucalyptus timber is one of eight wood veneer options available to Bentley customers when personalizing the $422,600 coupe. New “diamond in diamond” quilted elements on the car’s seats and door cards are sewn with 712 stitches, and the dashboard sports a high-tech 12.3-inch screen. While all of that adds luxury to the car's design, it’s not what everybody is talking about. That would be the 92 computers and 2,300 electrical circuits controlling 100,000,000 lines of software code — 15 times more than a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. If you think you’d like to own a Bentley Continental GT, just be aware that the average monthly car payment will be in the neighborhood of $1,500.

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The “One-Ring” Cell Phone Scam Can Ding Your Wallet

Scammers are using auto-dialers to call cell phone numbers across the country. They let the phone ring once — just enough for a missed call message to pop up. What the scammers are hoping for is that you’ll be curious enough to call the number back. If you do, you’ll likely hear a message like this: “Hello. You’ve reached the operator. Please hold.” All the while, you’re getting slammed with some hefty charges — a per-minute charge on top of the international rate. The calls are from phone numbers with 3-digit area codes that look like they’re from inside the U.S., but they’re actually from a variety of countries, most often the Caribbean. If you receive a call like this, don’t call the number back. There’s no danger in receiving the call; the danger is in calling it back.

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