[bertwert]

What was the "greatest thing" before sliced bread?

Bread?

[torashi]

Math puns are the first sine of madness.

mpun(y) = 1st(sin(mad(x)))

Happy New year!

[WPRESTO]

I know this is too familiar and well-known, but in case anyone has not heard:
Pi said to i "get real"- - i replied to Pi "be rational."

[torashi]

I know this is too familiar and well-known, but in case anyone has not heard:
Pi said to i "get real"- - i replied to Pi "be rational."

Saw it coming.

[rod_grant]

If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the 'terminal'?

[WPRESTO]

Bread?

FYI, V-A-V sliced bread. Did a quick GOOGLE search and discovered that the first machine for slicing bread into uniform pieces was invented & built by Otto Rohwedder of Iowa in 1912, but that machine was destroyed in a fire. It took him until 1925 to construct a second successful machine, and the first commercially packaged sliced bread was placed on the market that year by a small bakery. The real explosion of the product came in 1930 when Wonder Bread, a product that had been on the market since 1925, was offered in sliced form and went into mass production with wide distribution.

My vote for the best thing BEFORE sliced bread would be mirror-image asymmetrical shoes. For centuries left and right shoes were identical and therefore interchangeable left to right. This was thought to be desirable, because you could switch shoes left foot to right daily and they would wear evenly. The change came in the early 1800's when lathes devised for making gun stocks were applied to making lasts for shoes, with one source I found claiming that the first known commercial shoes with right & left foot shapes were offered for sale in Philadelphia in 1818


AND ALSO BTW: In 1856. Lyman Reed Blake of MessyChewBits constructed the first sewing machine capable of stitching the upper part of a shoe to the sole, which enormously reduced the cost of mass producing shoes as previously the work was done by hand.


So, with respect to modern shoes - - my candidate for the best thing before sliced bread - - their design and production went from identical right & left and 100% hand made to right-left shape-conforming and 100% machine made over the course of the 19th century, not that there weren't and still are custom-made, high-end hand-sewn shoes available - about which I know a little but will spare you.

[bigdavephoto]

What was the "greatest thing" before sliced bread?

Betty White.

[lesmore49]

FYI, V-A-V sliced bread. Did a quick GOOGLE search and discovered that the first machine for slicing bread into uniform pieces was invented & built by Otto Rohwedder of Iowa in 1912, but that machine was destroyed in a fire. It took him until 1925 to construct a second successful machine, and the first commercially packaged sliced bread was placed on the market that year by a small bakery. The real explosion of the product came in 1930 when Wonder Bread, a product that had been on the market since 1925, was offered in sliced form and went into mass production with wide distribution.

My vote for the best thing BEFORE sliced bread would be mirror-image asymmetrical shoes. For centuries left and right shoes were identical and therefore interchangeable left to right. This was thought to be desirable, because you could switch shoes left foot to right daily and they would wear evenly. The change came in the early 1800's when lathes devised for making gun stocks were applied to making lasts for shoes, with one source I found claiming that the first known commercial shoes with right & left foot shapes were offered for sale in Philadelphia in 1818


AND ALSO BTW: In 1856. Lyman Reed Blake of MessyChewBits constructed the first sewing machine capable of stitching the upper part of a shoe to the sole, which enormously reduced the cost of mass producing shoes as previously the work was done by hand.


So, with respect to modern shoes - - my candidate for the best thing before sliced bread - - their design and production went from identical right & left and 100% hand made to right-left shape-conforming and 100% machine made over the course of the 19th century, not that there weren't and still are custom-made, high-end hand-sewn shoes available - about which I know a little but will spare you.

I never knew that. Very interesting about bread slicers, but particularly about the evolution of shoes. My wife occasionally makes spiral, party sandwiches which are greeaaat.....as Tony the Tiger would say. She special orders the loaves of bread...which are long, very square at the corners and she has them sliced (presumably and with great certainty on my part... by a machine ) .

The fact that for centuries, shoes/boots were made to be identical for both feet is interesting. I've got a pair of locally manufactured , hand made, sheepskin moccasin type slippers and they did not have a right and a left, but are identical. Over the years I've had them, I started to wear one on my left and another on my right foot and they have slowly taken the shape of my left and right foot.

But occasionally I put them on the 'wrong' foot and can immediately feel the difference.

Years ago I had a similar pair and externally they looked the same. After awhile I was getting tired of guessing which foot went to which moccasin and eventually to the amusement of my then teenage kids...used the label making machine and put a upper case R on the right slipper and a L on the left slipper.

The slippers are only worn in our house, so that avoids public embarrassment for both me and my family.

[WPRESTO]

Two other questions about shoes popped into mind while doing the GOOGLE search:

1) when were heels added? I suspect they first appeared on boots used for riding to make it easier to keep your feet in the stirrups.
2) when were the first shoes with something like "waffle stomper" soles introduced? With leather, soles were smooth on the bottom unless hobnails were added. I suspect some kind of textured sole had to await the introduction of molded rubber soles. Did they first appear on shoes, winter hunting boots, or the earliest sneakers?

[torashi]

Two other questions about shoes popped into mind while doing the GOOGLE search:

1) when were heels added? I suspect they first appeared on boots used for riding to make it easier to keep your feet in the stirrups.
2) when were the first shoes with something like "waffle stomper" soles introduced? With leather, soles were smooth on the bottom unless hobnails were added. I suspect some kind of textured sole had to await the introduction of molded rubber soles. Did they first appear on shoes, winter hunting boots, or the earliest sneakers?

I guess you could argue that snow shoes ("rackets") were the first waffles stompers.

[bigdavephoto]

Two other questions about shoes popped into mind while doing the GOOGLE search:

1) when were heels added? I suspect they first appeared on boots used for riding to make it easier to keep your feet in the stirrups.
2) when were the first shoes with something like "waffle stomper" soles introduced? With leather, soles were smooth on the bottom unless hobnails were added. I suspect some kind of textured sole had to await the introduction of molded rubber soles. Did they first appear on shoes, winter hunting boots, or the earliest sneakers?

I think, the first waffle style sole was done on Nike shoes in the early 1970's. I remember hearing something about that either on a PBS station or I read about it. Just not sure about which it was.

[clackers]

This is one from UK comic Jo Brand: "My bloody neighbour banged on my front door at two-thirty in the morning. Thank God I was still up, playing the drums."

[rod_grant]

I don't approve of political jokes . . .



I've seen too many of them get elected.

[Tonytee]

I don't approve of political jokes . . .



I've seen too many of them get elected.

Even worse, get re-elected. (

tt

---------- Post added 01-02-19 at 04:49 AM ----------

This is one from UK comic Jo Brand: "My bloody neighbour banged on my front door at two-thirty in the morning. Thank God I was still up, playing the drums."

I have to admit, I am still hurting from laughing so hard. Simple, yet hilarious and very clever. Thanks so much for sharing.

TT

[jack002]

My neighbor complained to me about his broken windows, he lives just a stones throw from here