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* Sv\ M ■ « ® . *1 I m J*B |ut dinlviM t ,/'. '*l| MSfifr- Hft Bn --ft,. ■ . >••■< ;vv •’£?« ;,’- •'- ;'; - . ' 7. • lbHcktonMturebarM.com This working mother chooses a breakfast bar with no butylated hydroxytoluene. This mom knows that BHT is found in some of the leading breakfast bars. But she and her family love Back to Nature Banana Walnut Bakery Squares, made without any artificial preservatives. That delicious crunch comes from real walnuts, and our sweet organic bananas are grown without any synthetic pesticides. _j FOL . LOW YOUR INSTINCTS America bv the Numbers BOWLING New life in the fast lanes As bowling's gone upscale, leagues have lost out. THIS IS NOT your father’s bowling alley featuring dingy facilities, cheap beer and hotdogs spinning on steel rollers. Martini anyone? “What we used to call bowling alleys are now like huge spoils bars, with bil liard sections and elegant dining rooms,” says Tom Doyle, vice president of infor mation and research for the National Sporting Goods Association. The upscale bowling trend, epito mized at national chains such as Lucky Strike Lanes, has brought Americans Jk „ back to the joy of bowling. he says. “With all the . changes, and elec b tronic scoring, you Wk really don’t even jß' have to know anv- K thing about the W game. Just throw f the ball.” Last year, approxi- A alleys are W now like W huge sports bars, with elegant dining. A mately 45 million Ameri cans went bowling, up 32% over the past 20 years, when 34 million people a year visited bowling alleys, according to the National Sporting Goods Association. Even though more people are bowl ing now; the biggest rise is among in frequent bowlers, who bowl just two to nine times per year. In 1986, infrequent bowlers made up 27.5% of those who bowled; last year, there were 43.6% in frequent bowlers. The one dark spot: bowling leagues. Mainly, people don’t have the time to commit to weekly games anymore, says Mark Miller, of the United States Bowl ing Congress. His group reports that as of last year, there were 2.7 million bowl ing league members in the United States, a huge drop from the heyday of 9 mil lion league bowlers in the late 19705. E 3 Eve Tahmincioglu 8 USA WEEKEND • Sept. 14-16,2007