Tuesday, February 10, 2009

From Out Of Nowhere Comes A New Challenge


Not long after the coming together of Suzy and Joyce came a new challenge.

Suzy had made her name with the Guinness World Record. But from out of nowhere came a voice crying out to be recognized. A voice that was making an excellent point.

See, Guinness has this rule when it comes to world record bubbles. They can only be blown with three pieces of gum, which is a rule Suzy consistently played by. What was being said by the new challenger was that bubblegum shouldn't have this "3 piece" rule, that much bigger bubbles could be blown using more than three pieces. See this press release

Dr. Enaught T. Wiseham, a long time proponent of the big bubble, came forward.

Wiseham, owner of a Yahoo group called Enaught's bubbles, had blown bubbles with over 100 pieces of gum at the same time, and he had pictures of him blowing gigantic bubbles that suggested exactly that.

His point was that while the Guinness record was a great thing for bubblegum and Suzy was a great bubble blower, bigger bubbles could be blown if more than three pieces were used. In fact, he had often used over 100 pieces to blow bubbles! The Doctor was then joined in the cause by Earl "The GUM Bubble Coach" Hartwell, Canada's greatest bubble blower. Together the two of them formed a group called BUBL, The Blowing Unbelievable Bubbles League, to challenge the bubblegum world to consider the possibility of even bigger bubbles.

Boy, did that ever happen!

I had received news of this upstart group and looked into it and told Suzy and Joyce about it. Having held the Guinness Record for such a long time, Suzy apparently wasn't too sure what to think at first, but after talking about it we began to see opportunity in this. She had held her record for such a long time and put herself so far in front of the field it was beginning to feel like perhaps no one would ever break her record. Which is fabulous for creating bubblegum legend, but is not so good in terms of publicity, because it's always the same old unchanging news. Plus it only made sense. If a person could use a hundred pieces of bubblegum at a time and was a great bubblegum blower, he should be able to blow a bigger bubble than even a Guinness World record Holder using three pieces at a time.

Added to that common sense reasoning was the fact that Suzy had always wanted to see other bubblegum blowers experience some of the sweet taste of bubblegum success that she had experienced herself. This could be an opportunity to provide just that.

So, as a group, we made a decision.

Instead of either ignoring or battling this group we would approach them with the idea of forming a new organization focused totally on blowing big bubbles. We would honor both the Guinness Record, as represented by Suzy, and the unlimited use of bubblegum method, as represented by BUBL.

We sent out this message to BUBL. After some discussion it was decided the group would come together and it was formed. We called it The Blowers Of Mega Bubbles or The BOMB Squad. It was composed of Suzy, Joyce, Enaught and Earl. On May 30, 2008 a press release was issued announcing the merging of BUBL with our group to form the BOMB Squad. (The press release was called "BOMBlast 1" and all BOMB Squad press releases have been known as "BOMBlasts.").

At that point the future of bubblegum was cast. It would be all about the big bubble. And while Suzy and the Guinness three piece rule would hold their position, the group became about blowing the biggest bubbles possible, regardless of how much bubblegum could be used. It was our strategy to provide the bubble blowing world the best of both worlds. Many people just don't have access to, for whatever reason, the ability to chew over 100 pieces of bubblegum at a time to blow bubbles, so the Guinness World Record is available. On the other hand, there are others who can do it and have the talent to make the challenge, so now they would have their opportunity too.

The grass roots effort talked about in an earlier blog had begin to grow. Instead of it being only about the greatness of Chewsy Suzy, we were beginning to step out and evolve. Now it was about not just one but two Guinness World Records. And it wasn't just about Guinness World Records, it was about bubbles any way you could blow them. And it wasn't just about one bubblegum legend. It was about 4 bubblegum pioneers who had created not only a very large part of, but also the very best of, bubblegum history.

The BOMB Squad was formed and the four legends of bubblegum history were named the first BOMB Squad Heroes and a new chapter in bubblegum history was written.

More importantly, the stage had just been set for many new chapters to come.

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