Mountain Dew Mouse Story Goes Viral

We thought the World Wide Web was supposed to make information fly.

But now we have to question that notion.

It's taken a year and a half for us to hear that Pepsi is defending itself against a lawsuit claiming that a mouse was found in a can of Mountain Dew by saying that the furry little creature couldn't have been there because:

"The body would have transformed into a 'jelly-like' substance' " by the acid in the soda, as The Record of Madison/St. Clair, Wis., reported way back in July 2010.

So the mouse that the plaintiff claimed to have found, which was examined afterward, couldn't have been in the can, Pepsi says.

The Record, which has been dutifully following this important matter, says it wasn't until this week that the rest of us in the news media caught on to the Mountain Dew mouse story and Pepsi's defense. Apparently, a late February Record story about some changes in the Pepsi legal team must have tripped off some search engine algorithm and that's led to "international headlines."

We here at The Two-Way apologize for our lateness to this story. Perhaps we tired and needed an energy boost. Like, say, from a highly caffeinated drink.

Or, maybe not.

Copyright 2012 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.