Free Slurpee Day, A Holiday Not to be Missed

Happy realization today: It's July 11. As in 7/11. As in 7-Eleven,

America's favorite convenience store.

To honor the store's day of "birth," locations around the nation are offering their 7.11 oz. Slurpees to their patrons free of charge.

I've always been a fan of Slurpees, so you betcha I'm going to nab one on my commute home tonight.

To salute the day, here's some fun facts from the Slurpee Nation Web site. There's some pretty interesting useless information here.

• Early prototypes for the Slurpee machine made use of an automobile air conditioning unit.
• Bob Stanford, a 7-Eleven agency director, coined the term "Slurpee" in 1967.
• Winnipeg, Canada is generally thought to be the Slurpee capital of the world, due to their amazing Slurpee fanaticism. (really? yes)
• At Slurpee, we call it a BrainFreeze. The scientific name for it is Sphenopalatine Ganglioneuralgia.
• Pressing your tongue against the roof of your mouth is a known cure for brainfreeze.
• The current world record for drinking 6 oz. Slurpees in one minute is ELEVEN.
• Every day more than 11.6 million Slurpee drinks are consumed around the world.
• More than 40% of all Slurpee drinks are sold during the months of June, July and August.
• The average Slurpee drinker's age is 29.

Wow. Good stuff here. And great Web site, 7-Eleven. Happy birthday!