Leggo my Eggo

Today is a great day in the history of food. On this day in 1853, the first potato chips were prepared by chef George Crum in Saratoga Springs, New York. In 1869, the waffle iron was patented in the United States. In 1891, Thomas Edison patented the motion picture camera, which would eventually facilitate the Food Network and Rachael Ray's career. On this date in 79, Mount Vesuvius erupted, which could probably be linked to food somehow, but probably only through a tasteless joke.

I did some research on potato chips. They came into being because someone kept sending french fries back to the kitchen, saying they were too thick, soggy, and not salty enough. George Crum, who was getting mad and feeling spiteful, sliced the potatoes really thin, fried them til they were burnt to a crisp, and threw a lot of salt on there. Lo and behold, he created a culinary delight. The lesson here is, don't be shy about sending food back to the kitchen, because you might help invent something delicious.

Now, today's significance regarding waffles is a little dubious. Today only marks the patenting, and Wikipedia claims that pilgrims brought pseudo-waffle irons to America as early as the 1620's. But still, today I am celebrating waffles, and you can't stop me.

Can you imagine a world without waffles? I certainly cannot. I ate some for breakfast. If we didn't have waffles, we'd all just be eating pancakes if we wanted to have something that was once in batter form for breakfast.

There would be no Waffle House...we'd all have to go to IHOP if we wanted to socialize at 3 am. And frankly, IHOP takes a lot longer and is more expensive. Since 1955, WaHo has served 495,264,367 waffles! There might not even be a south if there were no Waffle Houses.

Belgium might not exist either if it weren't for waffles.

Also, the guy who co-founded Nike used a waffle iron to figure out the soles for Nike shoes. Maybe we would not have any athletes if we did not have waffles.

Would there be any waffle cones if we didn't have waffles? Probably not.

In conclusion, if we did not have waffles, we would not have as much happiness in the world.