Mentos fountain launch sets world record

Cape Girardeau is famous for many things.

The home of Rush Limbaugh (the talk-show host and the other Rush who has an empty federal courthouse named for him).

A stopping place for Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.

The nation's only officially designated (by mayoral proclamation) downtown golf course.

And now ...

The most simultaneous Mentos fountains ever launched.

The notification from Guinness World Records came Thursday night, according to Jason Lindsey, the former KFVS12 science reporter who coordinated the launch at Arena Park on Oct. 3.

The Guinnesss organization ruled that 973 fountains were launched, breaking the previous record of 850 Mentos fountains launched in the Netherlands in September.

When the mint Mentos is added to soda, the reaction creates a geyser up to 30 feet high.

-- Southeast Missourian