Hello once again SURGE fans and welcome to the 50th edition of SaveSURGE News! Now in our 2nd year of providing you with everything you ever wanted to know about SURGE, and more…

Sightings Report
There were 3 new SURGE Sightings added since the last edition of SaveSURGE News. They are in: IL, SC & VA.

Chris has confirmed our current Sighting for North Houston, TX by finding 8, 20oz. bottles at his local Citgo station! He tells SaveSURGE.org "The attendant said he had a whole case in back, but when I offered to buy it he couldn't find it. He swears his distributor still has a lot of it, so I ordered a case from him. I guess we'll see if it shows up." We hope you get that case, Chris! It will be a good sign for all of us.

Sadly, there were two deletions in Birmingham, AL and Belvidere, IL. There were previous reports of cans still in Birmingham but SURGE fan Corri made some phone calls to several area grocery stores and was told that they haven't carried our favorite soda for awhile. So, it's probably not a good idea to spend your vacation looking for SURGE in Alabama this summer.

Currently, there are 178 SURGE Sightings listed. A great big shout out to all of you who look for SURGE wherever you go!

SURGE at ShurFine?
While reading my local Sunday paper on 6/1/03 I was shocked to find a listing for SURGE in the ShurFine grocery store circular! Could this be a mistake? Could it be real? As of this writing, I still don't know for sure. I've made phone calls to several of the stores (there are dozens of them covered by this ad) and so far nothing has turned up. I've also e-mailed their corporate headquarters and have not heard back from them.

Brian is a friend of SaveSURGE.org and works in the grocery business. His opinion is that the mentioning of SURGE was a typo, as similar mistakes happen at his store all the time.

We'll keep checking and you will be the first to know as soon as we find out…

SURGE in the Long Beach Grand Prix Program
Steve is a big fan of SURGE and wrote in with this very interesting tidbit about his favorite soda being featured in a Coca-Cola ad in the Long Beach Grand Prix Program.

"Each year I attend the Long Beach Grand Prix, and buy the official program that goes along with the race. In the program, there's always a couple of pages where the race officials thank the sponsors, one of which is always Coca Cola. This year, in their acknowledgement of Coke, this is what they said...

'From its great heritage, to the prople who bring Coca-Cola products to thirsty people everywhere, the Coca-Cola Company is part of lives everywhere. With the most recognized trademark in the world, the company sports a long list of associated products, including Diet Coke, Sprite, Fanta, Barq's, SURGE, and Mr. Pibb, and also produces the Minute Maid brand of juice products and its water brand, Dasani.'

In case you're not familiar with it, the Long Beach Grand Prix is part of the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) season. It is one of the most popular races of the season, if not THE most popular. Over the course of the race weekend, as many as 150,000 people attend at least some of the events (like the Pro-Celebrity Grand Prix) or the "Lifestyle Expo" in the convention hall, and the crowd for the race itself can approach 100,000. A lot of these people buy the program, which is not just a paper throwaway thing. It is a big, slick, glossy, and colorful book, devoted to the race and the drivers, and of course, sponsors. Well, anyone who bought the program this year, and read those pages, got a little reminder about SURGE!"

Thanks for letting us know, Steve! This has been an amazing week for SURGE publicity, that is for sure.

New Bulletin Board
As many of you may have noticed, on Saturday, May 31 SaveSURGE.org launched a new bulletin board system. We feel that it will allow much better communication between SURGE fans and it will create an even better community atmosphere in which to hang out.

The board is run on the ever-popular phpBB code which is open-source and best of all FREE! The interface will look very familiar to some of you who frequent other bulletin boards. Some of the new features of the board include:

- Allows you to register with your very own username/password or post as an unregistered guest
- Send private messages to other users
- Search the board for specific keywords
- Upload custom Avatars (images no larger than 48x48pixels or 6kb in size)
- Allows users to keep and update a custom profile and much, much more!

We have created areas for you to discuss SURGE, Collectibles, Sightings and many non-SURGE related topics as well. Please check out the board and let us know what you think:

http://www.karks.com/surge/phpBB2/index.php

You will also see a link to the board under the Features menu at the top of every page and on the left-hand side of most pages throughout the site.

Avery Reviews dnL
SaveSURGE.org Co-Webmaster Avery Lund shares his thoughts on the soda that is quickly becoming a choice amongst SURGE fans who can't find SURGE, dnL:

The first time I saw it I did a double take. Could it be? That dark hue of green lusciousness? Unfortunately upon second glance I realized that this was not my beloved SURGE. So what was it you might ask? dnL, my friend a new citrus product from our friends over at Dr. Pepper/7up. It is billed as 7up upside down. But for those of you who are left with something to desire after drinking the lemon lime 7up, no fear dnL tastes nothing like its right side up sibling. First of dnL is green not exactly SURGE green but pretty close. Its logo is attractive and not offensive, sorta reminds me of another green wonder. So what about the flavor? Well folks we have ourselves a winner! Sure it's not SURGE.....but it's really pretty terrific. It is really the only citrus soda other than SURGE that tastes unique to me. It doesn't just taste like more of Dew and its ilk. It's both refreshing and strong. Though the flavor is as unidentifiable as SURGE it is still pleasant to the palate. So if you see it around give it a try, you won't regret it!
-Avery

Calling All Letter Writers!
Many people were inspired by the open letter to Coca-Cola written by SaveSURGE.org hall of famer Timb which was included in the last edition of SaveSURGE News. In fact, it even inspired fellow hall of fame member Shepard to write one of his own. He also came up with a great idea.

Shepard tells SaveSURGE.org "I began writing my "BRING BACK SURGE" letter to my local bottler, in hopes to save it at my local 7-11, and maybe bring it back more across the area. I also saw, in the last newsletter, Timb's amazing persuasive letter to his local bottler in FLA. I have to admit, I am borrowing some of the facts and points of reason as to why coke should bring back Surge for my letter. I feel that if any person would write a letter to their bottler, a resource of letters written to other bottlers would be a great research medium for facts, and ways of spelling out how much they wanted surge too. We are all in this together, so by sharing our persuasion points and writing styles, we could build off each other's ideas, and maybe create some fresh, new facts and reasons to bring back Surge. A Bring Back Surge Letter Archive."

And so, we're going to build one! There will soon be a letter archive appearing under the How You Can Help menu at the top of every page. We're also asking all of you who have written a letter to Coke to e-mail us a copy at surge@savesurge.org (no file attachments please) or leave a copy on the SaveSURGE.org Bulletin Board and we will post the best letters in this new section.

A special thanks to our Hall of Famers for their undying love and dedication to SURGE!

News & Notes from Avery
SaveSURGE.org would like to put out a special thanks to Matt a guy who has been working tirelessly to try and get the people over at www.topsecretrecipies.com to clone SURGE. I would remind you all if you haven't done so yet to send an email to support@topsecretrecipies.com and urge them to CLONE SURGE!

Also on the docket I would like to provide and opportunity to anybody interested to join the SaveSURGE Seti@Home Team! At the moment I have gotten the team started with about 7 thousand hours so we are off to a good start. For those of you who don't know, Seti@Home is a piece of software that downloads small 300k packets of radio waves received by the Arecibo Observatory and then analyzes them. At the moment creation of new teams is not working so I have signed up a user account for us to collect hours. The Seti@Home application is available for Windows/Mac/Linux and the set up is easy you can download the client at http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/download.html. To install check out this link: http://www.karks.com/surge/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=36#36

More Mt. Dew LiveWire and Sprite Remix Opinions
Mountain Dew LiveWire is like Orange Crush with just a hint of Mountain Dew with the included caffeine and sugar rush of Mountain Dew. I think it's the perfect combination. I get nauseous when drinking Code Red, and don't even get me started about Pepsi Blue, but LiveWire is awesome! When it comes out in cans, I'm gonna buy at least three 24-packs right away. But it still doesn't beat Surge. BRING BACK SURGE!!!
-Brad

Mountain Dew Live Wire is a silly name for a soda. It doesn't taste electrical to me! The taste is your standard-issue orange soda, except at the end of your swallow is a slight bitterness. It's not quite an aftertaste, but it's something. It is almost like it has alcohol in it, or like you've bitten into an orange peel. You have to give them points for realism! Over all, it won't satisfy any more than a Sunkist or a Faygo.

Sprite's Remix does have a nice aroma when you open it up, but the taste doesn't deliver. Although the taste is pleasant enough, it's a bit too tame. I predict a short life for Remix, as most people I've heard from dislike it and stores are selling 20 ouncers 2/$.100.
-Will (driver of SURGE cab #22)

What do you think of these new-fangled sodas? Let us know at surge@savesurge.org and we'll publish your comments here.

Are You a Hall of Famer?
Just a reminder that the deadline for nominations to The SaveSURGE.org Hall of Fame is Monday, June 30, 2003. Do you have what it takes to be a member of the Hall? Submit yourself or a friend and find out!

There will only be two dedicated SURGE fans chosen to join current inductees Timb the Enchanter and Shepard Ritzen on 8/31/03. Your next chance to be enshrined won't be until February, 2004 so you'd better hurry!

Poll Results: You would do anything for SURGE
The latest SURGE Poll asked you, How far would you go to get a SURGE?

Everything on this list plus drink a Pepsi - 41.5%
Drink a case of that nasty Mello Yello in return for a single can of SURGE - 31.4%
Run through a brick wall - 17.9%
Climb Mt. Everest - 8.9%

Total Votes: 89

You know what, I actually believe SURGE fans are dedicated enough to do everything on this list!

That's all the time we have for this week. Thanks for reading this supersized edition of SaveSURGE News and for being the most dedicated soda fans on Earth (we'll find out about other planets with that SETI @ Home thing)!

Sincerely,

Eric Karkovack
Co-Webmaster
www.savesurge.org