1.   Adolph Levis, the inventor of the Slim Jim dried meat snack, died on Tuesday in the Hospice by the Sea in Boca Raton, Fla.

2.   Sales of Slim Jims and other meat snacks have grown briskly in recent years even as the growth of other snack foods has slowed.

3.   Those who prefer meat snacks are loyal and true friends who can always be trusted.

4.   He packaged the meat snack and called it Penn Rose, but later changed it to Slim Jim.

5.   Meanwhile, sales of meat snacks, pork rinds and fat-laden energy bars are soaring.