Top 10 Discontinued Sodas

Call it soda or call it pop, we're junkies and we'll freely admit it. While we usually rely on the most common brands to get us through the day (typically Coke, Dr. Pepper or Mountain Dew) there have been some sodas that went far and above the realm of the ordinary to bring us something special. They say that only the good die young, and these exceptional sodas were taken from us far too soon.

Today, we look back fondly at the top discontinued sodas we have loved.

10. Pepsi Blue.

Not only did the color of the soda match the can and the name, but the flavor of this soda captured the very essence of the color blue. If Pepsi Blue had been around in Gargamel's day, he would have given up his quest to capture the tiny blue people, for this soda was more delicious than the tastiest of Smurfs. Sort of berry, sort of bubblegum, sort of cotton candy. It took the once-in-a-while treat of a blue Slurpee and turned it into a several-times-a-day delight.

Closest modern-day equivalent: Mountain Dew Voltage.

 

9. Surge.

Maybe we were suckers for extreme colors, but this electric green brought back happy memories of the Nickelodeon green slime we loved so much as kids. We once visited a camp cafeteria that had Surge in the soda fountain, and we remember drinking this with increased hyperintensity until we had the best sugar crash of our lives. It was like a heightened version of Mountain Dew, and we couldn't get enough.

Closest modern-day equivalent: Vault.

 8. Crystal Pepsi.

While Crystal Pepsi was largely regarded to be a failure, people actually staged angry protests when this soda was pulled from the market. The taste of this clear "un-Cola" is difficult to explain, but for those of us who fell in love with Crystal Pepsi, it's a taste we've never been able to forget. Pepsi told us, "You've never seen a taste like this," and sadly, we never have again.

Closest modern-day equivalent: None we've discovered.

Top 10 Best Nintendo Games of All Time

Our original Nintendo Entertainment System was the Christmas gift of 1988 that made every other gift pale in comparison. While our love of gaming lives on, we don't think we've spent as much time on any single video game system since then. Nothing takes us back to our childhood quite so much as remembering pleading with Mom and Dad before we went to bed, "PLEASE don't turn off the power! We've been working on this ALL DAY!"

After a friend recently purchased a used NES console, we were inspired to go back and rediscover the Top 10 Nintendo Games that defined that era in our lives.

10. Excitebike. 
It featured all the excitement of motocross racing coupled with an absurd propensity for tumbling down hills. We mastered the art of timing our A and B button jumps and reveled in the fact that this game actually featured a level builder where you could create custom tracks. Of course, once the console was turned off, you lost your creation and had to start over again the next time.


9. Mike Tyson's Punch-Out.
We learned how to time our moves in a fight with Mike Tyson long before we had been introduced to games like Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat. It was a huge deal if you could even make it past all the other fighters to get to Mike Tyson, but if you could knock him out, it was a legendary feat.


8. Final Fantasy.
This was our first experience ever with role-playing games (RPGs) and even today, with all of the impressiveness of the World of Warcraft, nothing has ever quite come close to replicating the way we so completely lost ourselves in the world of Final Fantasy.

Top Ten Celebrity Apologies of 2009

It was a tough year for some of our favorite famous people. Each year, a few of them take it upon themselves to remind us that even celebrities are human, too, and just as capable of making mistakes. Here are their most famous responses from 2009.

10. Michael Phelps.

"It's obviously bad judgment and it's something I'm not proud of at all. It's definitely not what I wanted, and it's clearly not what my mom wanted. This is just a stupid thing of mine that I did, and I have to live with it."

In January, a British tabloid published a photo of the Olympic swimmer smoking marijuana out of a bong. Phelps was banned from competing for three months and lost endorsement sponsorships over the incident.

9. Chris Brown.

"I'm truly, truly sorry that I wasn't able to handle the situation both differently and better. I am committed, with God's help, to emerging a better person. I only can pray that you forgive me, please."

The R&B star was arrested in February following a domestic violence incident involving his girlfriend, pop star Rihanna. He was charged with felony assault in March and ultimately accepted a plea bargain involving community service and five years of probation.

8. Bernie Madoff.

"I am deeply sorry and ashamed. I knew what I was doing was wrong — indeed, criminal. I left a legacy of shame. It is something I will live with for the rest of my life."

The New York financier and former Chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange was found guilty of eleven felonies, turning his wealth management business into a Ponzi scheme that one journalist labeled "the largest investment fraud in Wall Street history." The scheme swindled investors and charities out of a reported $65 billion. Madoff received the maximum sentence of 150 years in prison.