QUARANTINE BLOG # 296

January 20, 2021

Everyone’s heard the expression, “greatest thing since sliced bread,” but who actually invented the popular food?

Bread is one of the world’s oldest prepared foods.  There’s evidence humans were whipping up a crude form of the stuff some 30,000 years ago.  Sliced bread, however, has been around for less than a century.  The first automatically sliced commercial loaves were produced on July 6, 1928, in Chillicothe, Missouri, using a machine invented by Otto Rohwedder, an Iowa-born, Missouri-based jeweler.  An article extolling the value of the machine declared, “considerable research” had gone into determining the right thickness for each slice: slightly less than half an inch.

One of the first major brands to distribute sliced bread was Wonder, starting in 1930. Wonder Bread originally appeared in stores in 1921 in Indianapolis, where it was manufactured by the Taggart Baking Company.  In 2012, Wonder Bread disappeared completely from store shelves after its then-owner, Hostess Brands (which also made Twinkies and Ding Dongs, among other famous snacks), declared bankruptcy – due to the judgment in a $120 million racial discrimination suit awarded to 21 black workers at the San Francisco plant.  Tastykake and Dave’s Killer Bread brands acquired Hostess’ bread brands, and reintroduced Wonder Bread in 2013.

👉  No comment:

👉  I’ve mentioned in earlier blogs that my sense of humor can be strange.  Below may be the perfect example:

👉  And we probably all know the truth of this one:

👉  Today’s car song from the jukebox is “One Piece at a Time” by Johnny Cash, recorded in 1976.  It was the last song performed by Cash to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart.  The narrator leaves his home in Kentucky in 1949 to pursue work at General Motors in Detroit, Michigan, installing wheels on Cadillacs, watching each one roll by day after day on the assembly line, knowing that he will never be able to afford one of his own.  

Beginning almost immediately, he decides to “steal” a Cadillac by way of using their assembly line jobs to obtain the parts.  He takes the small parts home hidden in his unusually large lunch box; larger parts are smuggled out in his co-worker’s motor home.  The process of accumulating all the necessary parts turns out to take at least 25 years, and the fun begins when he starts to assemble the car.  This video features a custom-built car with parts from 1949 to 1975.  Enjoy Johnny Cash and “One Piece at a Time.”

👉  For all you pun-loving readers, two more:

👉  QB 294 featured a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle baseball card with a PSA (Professional Sports Authenticators) grading of 9 which sold for $5.2 million.  If that card is out of your price range, you may be interested in the SGC (Superannuation Guarantee Contributions) graded card currently for sale on eBay.  The starting bid is $18,000 and comes with free delivery.

👉  I did not know it until it was too late to be included in QB 295, but yesterday was National Popcorn Day (Bonnie and I celebrated, sharing an Orville Redenbacher microwave popcorn).  About 13 billion quarts of popped popcorn are eaten annually, which is about 42 quarts per person, and Bon and I do our share to keep that average up.  

Our daughters responded to the announcement: Amy said she’d eat a bowl of ice cream, chew loudly and pretend it was popcorn.  Jennifer said add M&Ms to hot popcorn – makes it better.

Back at 117 Shenandoah Avenue, I would make popcorn in an aluminum pan: set it on the gas burner and bang vigorously, then pour in cooking oil until the bottom was just coated, throw in 2 kernels of popcorn and put on the lid, and when they popped, I’d add 1/3 cup of unpopped corn, recover the pot, and shake continually until the popping stopped, finally pour it into a big yellow Pyrex Oven Ware bowl and salt thoroughly.

The oldest popcorn that has been found is between 4,000 and 5,600 years old, and was discovered in 1948 in the Bat Cave in west-central New Mexico (well, not that bat cave).  The Aztecs were using popcorn when Cortes invaded Mexico in 1519, not only for food, but to decorate their headdresses and statues of gods.  Some Native Americans believed that spirits lived inside popcorn kernels, grew angry when they were heated, and then escaped.

👉  No comment needed:

👉  I have adapted today’s close from Senior Living Ministries.

An old YouTube video of people packed into a cold Times Square, shows a New Year’s Eve celebration in the before times.

I know we are 3 weeks beyond New Year’s Eve, but it is a strange celebration.  All of those people out there, and no ball game was being played.  No rock concert was getting underway.  There was just a huge, lighted ball that dropped from a tall building.  And within a few seconds, hardly worth fighting traffic and crowd pushing for, it was over.  Now, how to get out of here and get home.

Different from most other holiday celebrations, New Year’s Eve celebrates the passage of time.  We make a huge deal out of it because it signals the end of an old era and the start of a new one.  We hope that the old year’s problems, heartaches, and struggles will vanish as we think of getting the chance of a new year and a new start. 

It may have been the same way for the Israelites when they stood with Joshua looking forward to a new era ahead of them.  They had wandered for 40 years in the desert, and finally they could see land flowing with milk and honey ahead.  Better yet, they had God’s promise that He would never leave or forsake them.

With the old year behind you and looking forward to the new one, you can have hope in the promises of God.  You will certainly face both trying and joyful times, but you can rest assured that God “will never leave you nor forsake you” (Joshua 1:5). 

Pray that God will give you courage, strength, and faith in Him to face the days ahead.  Thank Him for being faithful and for never leaving your side.

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