Greetings everyone and welcome to the 58th edition of SaveSURGE News! It's the greenest place on earth (yes, even more than Greenland).

It's been an extremely busy week so let's get right to it!

Sightings Report
There have been 5 new SURGE Sightings added since the last edition of SaveSURGE News. They are in: GA, MA (2), OK & TX.

Sadly, there were 2 deletions in GA & NY.

Currently, there are 173 SURGE Sightings listed. A great big thank you to everyone who's seen SURGE!

Hall of Famers Announced
We are very pleased to announce the latest class of SaveSURGE.org Hall of Famers, officially inducted on 8/01/03. Our previous policy called for just 2 new members to be enshrined every six months. However, this time around it was just too difficult to choose and so we decided to induct 3 new members! Jim Halvorson, Tim Kelly & Nick Martino have each proven that they are Hall of Fame material. Their hard work and dedication are a big reason why this website is still going strong 18 months after its initial launch.

Here are some brief facts about the new Hall of Famers:

Jim Halvorson - Started the Save Surge Soda club on Yahoo! Jim has also contributed several SURGE Sightings and has put his impressive SURGE memorabilia collection on display in For the Love of SURGE.

Tim Kelly - Currently filming a SURGE documentary entitled, "Surgical Mystery Tour". Tim is as dedicated to SURGE as they come; spending tons of money on eBay but more importantly campaigning for the soda he loves every day.

Nick Martino - Created the very popular SURGE Movie using Macromedia Flash in our For the Love of SURGE section. Nick is a frequent contributor to the site and has dedicated himself to spreading the word about SURGE any way he can.

Along with original inductees Shepard Ritzen and Timb the Enchanter, Jim, Nick and Tim all received a special treat in the mail recently. A commemorative SaveSURGE.org Hall of Fame mug bearing their names was sent to all 5 members of the Hall as our way of saying thanks. From here on in, each new member of the Hall of Fame will receive one of these special gifts.

Congratulations to the inductees of August 1, 2003 and thank you for all that you have done for SURGE!

On a side note, we will now be inducting 2 new members to the Hall every 3 months instead of the previous policy of 6 months. We are now accepting nominations for the next round of inductions which will come on 11/01/03.

SaveSURGE.org in USA Today & Las Vegas TV!
Thursday, July 31 was an absolute whirlwind of press attention for SURGE and the site. First, we were selected as one of USA Today's "Hot Sites" for the day. Next, the site made its first ever television appearance (as far as we know) on KLAS-TV 8 in Las Vegas, NV as the "Weird Website of the Week"! There is a chance that the site will also be listed in the Sunday (8/3/03) print-edition of USA Today, as they normally list the Hot Sites for the previous week.

We are quite honored to have been featured by two great media outlets. Receiving this sort of national and regional attention can only help us in the fight to bring back SURGE. However, Avery & I know that we have each and every one of YOU to thank for the press coverage the site has been receiving. As I often say, the site would be empty without your thoughts, pictures and Sightings. Thank you SURGE fans, you are keeping the dream alive!

Mello Yello Dying?
One of the hot topics on the SaveSURGE.org Bulletin Board lately is the presumed death of Mello Yello in at least one part of Washington State. SURGE fan Ralph reports that he can no longer find it in his area and when he asked a local distributor about the status of Mello Yello, he was told that it is indeed being discontinued due to poor sales.

Mello Yello is of course the drink that replaced our beloved SURGE throughout the USA. Coca-Cola has also brought out new flavors in some markets including Mello Yello Cherry, Mello Yello Melon and the recently released Mello Yello Afterglow which is a peach-flavored soda.

From the discussions on the board, it appears sales of the original Mello Yello haven't been very good. We would expect to see it discontinued in more areas of the country in the following months. While we do feel sorry for fans of this drink (we know how hard it is to lose our favorite beverage), this can only mean good things for SURGE.

In the areas where Mello Yello goes belly-up, Coca-Cola and its bottlers will have a huge void to fill in their citrus soda category. They basically have three choices: 1. Do nothing and let Pepsi (Mountain Dew) and DPSU (dnL) take all of the citrus sales…2. Spend millions of dollars in launching yet another new citrus beverage…3. Re-Introduce SURGE to the market.

Obviously, I'm a little biased but I believe bringing SURGE back would be Coke's best chance to compete in the citrus market. It has a dedicated following, they already manufacture the syrup so it's readily available and it has a unique flavor that sets it apart from every other citrus soda out there.

Now is definitely the time to tell your Coca-Cola bottler that you want SURGE back! Visit our How You Can Help section and keep fighting that good fight.

URGE in the USA Update
Note: Those of you who visit the site on a regular basis may have noticed a change on Friday, August 1. The URGE in the USA box that was located on the top of our front page has now been moved to its own separate section. There is now a URGE in the USA icon along the right hand side of the front page linking to this new section. You can also find a link under the Features menu on the top of every page.

Danny from Real Soda wrote in this week to let us know that he is still trying to establish contacts over in Norway. A friend who will be visiting Norway will be helping out with this. There is also the issue of shipping URGE over and just how much would have to be ordered to fill the shipping crate. We are still working hard to bring URGE to the USA and we will keep you updated of any new developments as they happen.

Nick R. Shares his SURGE Memories
Nick R. wrote in this week and told us of SURGE and his beloved Nintendo 64. Ah, these were the days when SURGE was launched and life tasted a bit sweeter. Be sure to check out Nick's story in For the Love of SURGE.

Poll Results - You Can't Drink What You Can't Find
This week's SURGE Poll asked you: How many times per week do you drink SURGE?

86% - SURGE isn't in my area
7.7% - 5 or more
3.8% - 1
1.5% - 2
0.7% - 4
0% - 3

Total Votes: 129

Those of you who are lucky enough to have a SURGE Sighting nearby definitely take advantage on a weekly basis. For the rest of us, we'll have to keep on searching. One day soon, though, SURGE may only be as far away as our local grocery store!

That's all the time we have for this week. Thanks to all of you for making this site what it is!

Sincerely,

Eric Karkovack
Co-Webmaster
www.savesurge.org