Okay. I've got a weird one.

Several years ago, I found Manhattan Fruit Bars at my local grocery store and fell in love with them. Of course, shortly thereafter, the one grocery that carried them discontinued them and I could no longer find them. Just tonight I found their web site, despite looking for it every few months. I don't know if I was an idiot all the other times, or if I just finally got lucky tonight, but, regardless, I found it.

I'd be happy to order directly from them, but their online ordering system is broken, as is their contact page, neither of which bode well. However, I still have unreasonable hopes.

Anyway, what I'm getting at is that I'm hoping that someone out there has seen these in their local grocery store. Take a look at the box and just wander through the popsicle section the next time you go. If you find them, tell me what grocery store they were in. Maybe I can find one near here. If not, maybe I can get you to ship some to me.

Someone, please take pity and help me out. The company is (or was [sad]) based in San Antonio, so you Texas folks might have better luck. I think they also might be a US distributor of a Mexican product, so if there are any Mexicans out there, keep an eye out for me, too.

Anyway, here's what the box looks like:

The red script ``Manhattan'' in the white semicircle appears on all of the boxes. I'm particularly interested in the lime ones, but if you find any at all, let me know, as at least a distribution would exist.

Thanks. I hope someone can help me out.

Wasn't in 1998, was it? I just happened to notice there was a recall listed, which I'm sure you probably ran across as well, just thought I'd point it out. Of course, it only mentions the pineapple, but the stores might have decided to pull them all because of it.

There's 3 email addresses in the HTML of the contact page you might try..

[email protected] (in the header)

and these

[email protected]
[email protected]

, which are the ones where the stuff you submit is supposed to be sent to.

The go to guy for Manhattan Fruit Bars is Dan Douglas. They recently shut down shipping due to a fedex rate increase. However He's traveling to Raleigh tommorrow and expects an email from you. His email address is [email protected]

Thanks for giving me a call; the people here aren't all just in my head. As it turns out, my network connection is out due to some all-purpose incompetence on my ISP's part (``No. Your DSL line upgrade won't require any new hardware. Sucker.'').

So how is it that you met this guy?

Boredom is a powerful motivator.

Hmmm. That email address keeps bouncing back to me. Are you sure it's correct?

That's what I thought he gave me.... All I did was call the number on the web page, you'd probably do just as well to call him. I'm not sure when He leaves.