Welcome to Monday! Another week, another Spark! The usual mix of trivia and humour is here to ease you into the working week with a smile on your face.

On This Day – 7th July 1928 – The first sliced bread is sold in Missouri, USA

Although I love nothing more than slicing into a fresh crusty loaf to make my thick, breakfast toast, the convenience of grabbing a couple of slices to make a sandwich cannot be underestimated. On this day in 1928, the citizens of Chillicothe, Missouri were the first to experience the joy of peeling back the waxed paper and revealing the uniform, regular slices of bread within.

Although numerous attempts to perfect bread-slicing machines had been made over the years, it took until 1928 for Otto Rohwedder, an inventor from Davenport, Iowa to perfect his machine. The Chillicothe Baking Company used Rohwedder’s machine to produce their ‘Kleen-Maid Sliced Bread’. The moment was advertised as the “Greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped”. This is turn has led on to the popular saying, ‘the greatest thing since sliced bread’.

By 1933, 80% of bread sold in the US was sliced. In the UK, a slicing and wrapping machine was installed by the Wonderloaf Bakery in London in 1937. It took until the 1950’s for 80% of the UK bread market to be sliced. People obviously liked wielding the bread knife as much as I do (although I never pointed one at errant users, honest!)

Read more here.

Also on this day:

1898 – President McKinley signs the Newlands Resolution, annexing Hawaii to the United States
1907 – Florenz Ziegfeld Jr stages his first ‘Follies’ on the roof of the New York Theater
1958 – President Eisenhower signs the Alaska Statehood Act into US law
2003 – The NASA Opportunity Rover is launched towards Mars on a Delta II rocket
2005 – A series of terrorist bombs explode on London public transport, killing 56 people

Arrivals

1919 – Jon Pertwee, British actor (‘The Navy Lark’, ‘Doctor Who’)
1940 – Ringo Starr, British musician and singer-songwriter (The Beatles)
1941 – Jim Rodford, British musician and bass player (Argent, The Kinks, The Zombies)
1949 – Shelley Duvall, US actress and producer (‘The Shining’, ‘Popeye’, ‘Time Bandits’)
1981 – Synyster Gates, US heavy-metal guitarist (Avenged Sevenfold)

Departures

1930 – Arthur Conan Doyle, British doctor and author (‘Sherlock Holmes’)
1973 – Veronica Lake, US actress (‘I Married a Witch’, ‘The Blue Dahlia’)
1990 – Bill Cullen, US TV presenter and game show host (‘The Price is Right’, ‘To Tell the Truth’)
2006 – Syd Barrett, British musician and singer-songwriter (Pink Floyd)
2007 – Donald Michie, British cryptographer, AI researcher and former Bletchley Park codebreaker

The Funnies:

Recipe of the day: Microwave Sausage and Bean Stew with Crusty Bread

This recipe from BBC Food is quick and easy and as I have sausages to cook this evening, I might just try this myself. Plus, it contains bacon!

Ingredients

· 8 sausages, separated
· 3 rashers smoked back bacon, trimmed and cut into 1.5cm/¾in slices
· 1 onion, finely chopped
· 2 garlic cloves, crushed
· 400g tin chopped tomatoes
· 400g tin baked beans
· 400g tin red kidney beans or any other beans, drained and rinsed
· 50ml/2fl oz hot chicken or vegetable stock, made with 1 stock cube
· 1 tsp mixed dried herbs
· ¼ tsp chilli flakes
· 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce (optional)
· chopped fresh flatleaf parsley (optional)
· freshly ground black pepper
· ½ baguette or other crusty bread, to serve

Method

  1. Prick each sausage twice with the tip of a sharp knife. Place the sausages on a large microwaveable plate, spaced apart and pointing inwards like the spokes of a bicycle wheel. Cook uncovered on HIGH for 2 minutes (1000W) or 2 minutes 30 seconds (800W). Turn each sausage over and flip so the ends that were closest to the middle are now closest to the rim of the plate. Cook uncovered on HIGH for 1 minute 50 seconds (1000W) or 2 minutes (800W), or until the sausages are cooked. They won’t go brown but should be firm and hot throughout (see Tip below). Set aside.
  2. Place the bacon, onion and garlic in a large, wide-based microwaveable bowl or casserole (large enough to hold at least 2 litres/3½ pints). Cover with a microwaveable lid or dinner plate and cook on HIGH for 4 minutes (1000W) or 5 minutes (800W). Stir in the tomatoes, baked beans, kidney beans, stock, dried herbs and chilli flakes. Cover and cook on HIGH for 4 minutes (1000W) or 5 minutes (800W).
  3. Slice the sausages in half and stir into the bean mixture. Add the Worcestershire sauce, if using. Cover and cook on HIGH for 6 minutes (1000W) or 7 minutes 30 seconds (800W), or until piping hot throughout. Stir halfway through the cooking time and remove the lid carefully as there will be lots of hot steam. Season with black pepper.
  4. Cut the bread into four pieces, put on a microwaveable plate and microwave uncovered on HIGH for 20–30 seconds, or until warmed. Do not cook for too long or it will toughen. Serve the bread with the sausage stew. Garnish with parsley, if using.

Quote of the Day:

“He was known to Ankh-Morpork’s professional underclass as a thoughtful, patient man, and considered something of an intellectual because some of his tattoos were spelled right.” (Hogfather)

– Sir Terry Pratchett

Choon of the Day:

Happy Birthday Ringo!

Comic of the Day:

Mouseover: “Low gravity can cause bone loss, so we’re pleased to report that, since we initiated capsule motion, the number of bones in each crew member has been steadily increasing”

Image Credit: https://xkcd.com/3111

Explain XKCD: explain xkcd

Inspirobot Always Controversial, Occasionally Inspirational Quote of the Day:

If you missed Friday’s independent Spark! from @Lonny6654, you can find it here:

(Spark! Pro series – 4th July 2025)

45 Spice ups

My favourite thing about unsliced bread is cutting off a nice big slice of “door stopper” bread as my dad would call it

14 Spice ups

2005 – A series of terrorist bombs explode on London public transport, killing 56 people

I remember watching this on the news on the day that it happened, and I still feel terrible for those who lost their lives.

Happy Birthday, Ringo Starr!

Microwave Sausage and Bean Stew with Crusty Bread

I’d definitely have this at anytime.

14 Spice ups

20 Spice ups

Also, if you think that Arthur Conan-Doyle is only famous for Sherlock Holmes, have a read of this:
Arthur Conan Doyle - Wikipedia

13 Spice ups

Chillicothe, sounds spicy…

btw. Otto Frederick Rohwedder was the child of a german immigrant family.
so sliced bread is a direct outcome of immigration…

12 Spice ups

Happy Birthday Ringo! Thank you for inventing music!

10 Spice ups

Inspirobot, as a Southerner I beg to differ. Chiggers and ticks are agents of the Devil.

And on that theme:

@Panda-Marie - where for art thou??
@gurugabe1 @jameswalker20 @HulkSmash

11 Spice ups

I hear crickets are delicious. I would however eat them, no matter how they are prepared.
ICYMI:

@jameswalker20 @gurugabe1 @Panda-Marie @chrisdavis8

16 Spice ups

Stapleton-Eastwood connected to one video earns:

11 Spice ups

AI you hilarious thing…

15 Spice ups

On the weekend, I have been known to use one of his live concerts as background music* while I read.

*My wife would be rolling her eyes at my use of the term background music as the volume will be turned up just a wee bit.

8 Spice ups

Oh burn me. :hot_face: :hot_pepper:

8 Spice ups

When I think of Ringo Starr solo,

Minor trivia, Ringo was the first host of the US version of Thomas the Tank Engine, until he was replaced by George Carlin

Also happy birthday to the third Doctor

9 Spice ups

Well I’m curious what this means in British cuisine. I have specific dried herbs, such as parsley, oregano, basil, etc., but what is in “mixed dried herbs”?

9 Spice ups

In the UK you can buy jars of “mixed herbs”. The Schwartz website says it’s made up of “marjoram, basil, oregano and thyme”.

9 Spice ups

Thanks! Marjoram is an herb I’ve heard of, but I’m not very familiar with. I use oregano a lot, and basil pretty regularly too. I always seem to run out of thyme though. LOL I would venture to say that “mixed herbs” would be good on my new favorite side dish, which consists of sauteed carrots, squash, and zucchini. I typically saute them in olive oil, and season with salt, oregano (generously), and basil. Start with just carrots, cut in fairly small chunks, and give them 5+ minutes alone, then add the rest and saute for 3-5 minutes, until to the tenderness you desire (we like them to still have a slight crunch). I started doing this to figure out how to use squash and zucchini since I’ve got both in my garden this year.

4 Spice ups

I thought that was yesterday. I just remembered I was watching the BBC Singapore last night and it was already Monday there.

Nothing like a 7% Solution.

A sad day for Pink Floyd. Even if he was fired for being mentally unstable.

Even though it was not written about him, it fits:

+1000 Internets to you for the Betty White comment @DailyLlama

@CharlesHTN I am disappointed, you must always have time and thyme.

@Panda-Marie (in absentia) @chrisdavis8 @gurugabe1 @HulkSmash

8 Spice ups

1930: Preliminary work begins on the Boulder (Hoover) Dam


1986: Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter spent their wedding anniversary building a Habitat for Humanity home.
1984: Bruce Springsteen’s “Born In The U.S.A.” is #1 on the Billboard 200.
1986: David Lee Roth releases “Eat ‘Em And Smile.”
2007: Bon Jovi’s “Lost Highway” drives straight to #1 on the Billboard 200.
2007: “I Don’t Wanna Stop” is Ozzy Osbourne’s first #1 on Billboard’s Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks. The song ends an eight-week run by Linkin Park’s “What I’ve Done.”

National Day Of Rock ‘N’ Roll
National Dive Bar Day
National Father-Daughter Take A Walk Day
National Strawberry Sundae Day
National Macaroni Day
National Koi Day (Don’t be koi with me)

@atruex @georgeSVFC @yellowshirtcc @ich-ni-san @jemjules @hulksmash @panda-marie @chrisdavis8 @jameswalker20 @machomanrandall @DailyLlama @Nerf_Herder

Sorry, I was out last week for doctor’s appointments to get new meds to help with my anguishing pain.

7 Spice ups

Hopefully, the new meds are helping with that anguishing pain and you’re doing better today?

4 Spice ups