How many potato chips in a 1" stack?

[trof]

I took a break from the "news" yesterday.
Sufferin' with this miserable freakin' cold and just went back to bed about 11 a.m.
Needed some comfort and mindless "chewing gum for the brain" entertainment. Surfed around the channels and lit on the History Channel. Great American Marvels or some such. A couple of hours about the development of automobiles, highways, roadside attractions, drive-in food, drive in everything, and the general history of the Mobile American. Also a segment on American fast/convenience/snack food. Fascinating.

Here are a few things I learned.

Arguably, Henry Ford started the whole mobile, interstate, fast-food nation thing. Until he came along the auto was just a rich man's toy. He made it affordable to the masses.

The first drive-in restaurant was in Houston (I think). The owners hired a bunch of 13 and 14 year old boys to take orders in and food out. These kids worked for tips only. Whoever got to the car first got the sale. The competition got so stiff that the boys would run out to a car pulling in. The first one to hop on the running board claimed the customer. Hence "car-hops".

The McDonald brothers got the assembly line method of fast food down to a fine art. Ray Kroc sold milkshake machines to them. LOTS of machines. He visited their burger stand to see why and was amazed at their operation. Bought the franchise rights and you know the rest.

PA Turnpike was the first paved toll road in the U.S. On earlier toll roads, a bar (pike) was placed across the road until you paid the toll. Then the pike was turned aside so you could pass. Turnpike.

Eisenhower was very impressed with the autobahns in Germany which doubled as emergency runways. One of the reasons he pushed through our interstate system was so that we could do the same in time of war.

The average potato chip is 1/20th of an inch thick. You can do the math for a 1" stack.

The guy who invented Jell-O didn't make a success of it and sold the formula for $495.

The guy who invented Twinkies made those little cups for strawberry shortcake. The availability of the berries back then made it a seasonal business. However, bananas were available from Central and South America year round. He made a banana paste filling and could then sell his confection all the time. He originally named them "Twinkle-Toes" after a brand of ladies' shoes. Later shortened it to Twinkies.

Clarence Birdseye discovered frozen food while fur trapping in northern Canada. The Inuit (Eskimos? Not sure.) froze fresh caught fish to thaw and cook later. Trouble was, there was no cheap freezing equipment around. He was REALLY ahead of his time. When the equipment was developed, it was still too expensive for grocers to buy. They hit on the idea of renting the freezers to them. By that time he had sold the business, but still associated with it and made his pile.

Milton Hershey (yep, THAT Hershey) in effect had his own dairy herd. Contracted with all the farmers surrounding his plant in PA to sell exclusively to him. Had his own sugar plantations in Cuba and Central America. The nickel bar was Hershey's signature candy bar. The size varied from year to year, depending on the cost of the ingredients, so you literally always got a nickel's worth of chocolate.

And last, but not least...SPAM!
Hormel canned hams. Good ones. But they had to buy whole pigs. The shoulder was cut off to make the ham. The shoulder was mostly bone and sold for pennies a pound. Hormel wanted a way to make a profit off that wasted meat. He turned the problem to his in-house French chef. After some experimentation, the chef figured a way to strip the meat off the bone, grind it up, add some spices, and COOK IT IN THE CAN! Hormel gave a New Year's Eve party and served this new "delicacy". It was pretty well received. He held a contest to name it. One of the employees toyed around with spiced shoulder meat that tasted kind of like ham but wasn't and came up with SPAM. And now you know the rest of the story.

I think I'll go back to bed and learn some more.
:hi:

[trof]

1. Did everyone think this was a trick question?

Like "Who is buried in Grant's Tomb?".
Was it what I said, or just the way I said it?
;-)
<shameless kick>