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For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Creation of Pop-Tarts 40 years ago spawned a food revolution Bill Post was working as a plant manager for the Keebler Co. in Grand Rapids, Mich., when, one day, Kellogg's sent over a prototype of a product it wanted Keebler to manufacture. The product: A fruit-filled pastry that could be warmed in the toaster to make a quick, convenient, portable breakfast. Kellogg's called it the Pop-Tart. Four decades later, the original toaster pastry has become a staple of consumers' kitchens and a full-fledged icon of American pop culture. Although they didn't...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Like children poking the packages under the tree, some economy-watchers like to look at boxes for clues on how merry their Christmas is going to be. Reading the U.S. economy by these twinkling lights, Americans may find no more cheer in their immediate economic future than they have in the past couple of years. "We've either been in recession or we've been very close to recession from a box business standpoint for over two years," said Mark Wilde, analyst at Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. The "box business standpoint" is a pretty good stand-in for more formal...