Save The Twinkie!

~ Phosphorus, park of a key Twinkie ingredient, was discovered in 1669 by German alchemist Hennig Brand when he boiled down the urine he collected from local nuns.

~ Twinkie cream gets its slippery sheen from cotton cellulose, which serves the same purpose in rocket fuel.

~ Despite popular lore, Twinkies will not survive a nuclear war any better than you will - Their average shelf life is 25 days.

~ The Twinkie was invented in 1930 in Chicagoland by James Dewar - Now known as Grandpa Twinkie - At Hostess' Schiller Park Bakery. An advertisement for Twinkle Toes shoes inspired its name. They were invented basically because he wanted to get more use out of his shortcake pans.

~ Back in 1930, Twinkies were sold 2 for 5 cents! Which made it affordable for Dwar to purchase them since he never saw a penny of royalties.

~ Hostess reported over 21 Million Twinkies were sold last year.

~ Former President Bill Clinton included a Twinkie as "an object of enduring American symbolism" when compiling the Nation Millennium Time Capsule in 1999. It's scheduled to be opened in 2100.

~ Twinkies originally were filled with banana cream, but the filling was switched to vanilla when bananas were rationed during World War II. The new flavor was so popular, Hostess kept it.

~ There are 17 Hostess bakeries across the country making 500 million Twinkies every year. It takes 40,000 miles of plastic wrap a year to package them. At 150 calories each, all of those Twinkies have the energy equivalent to nearly 51,000 barrels of crude oil.

~ There are 39 ingredients in a Twinkie: flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, water, and "trace" of egg. The rest of the ingredient list is, "less natural."

~ In 2005 alone, Americans spent $47 Million on Twinkies.

~ People in Chicago eat more Twinkies per capita than anywhere else, earning Chicago the title of "Twinkie Capital of the World."