I'm sitting around waiting for [thing] for an unknown amount of time so while I wait I will share with you the wildest things I have learned while working on my snack history newsletter 1. The original goldfish crackers were Swiss and got their name because the inventor's wife was a Pisces

snackstack.net/p/the-snack-th…

I want to tell you about the history of … goldfish-swallowing.

This thread has everything: College kids. Dancing. Tabloids. Science. Belgian druids. Hollywood in the 1920s. Media commentary. Goldfish swallowing as grounds for divorce. Margaret Thatcher, somehow.

(1) Before we begin the history, I hope it goes without saying, but please (for many reasons) don’t swallow live fish. You won’t like it. The fish won’t like it. *This is a history thread, not an endorsement thread.*

So …

(2)

So I’ve done the research and now I need to tell you the long and glorious history of square-cut pizza, a true delicacy of the Midwest (and beyond).

It involves both blue-collar bars and international diplomats.

Also pipe organs.

HISTORY THREAD.

(1) Pull up a chair, this gets fun. And weird.

First things first: We’re not talking about Sicilian style and pizzas in a square/rectangular shape today, but *circular pizzas with a square cut.*

Like this:

(Tadphoto via Getty)

(2)

Okay, I should be sleeping but I have too many tabs open about the history of *blue raspberry flavor* and you probably need to go down this rabbit hole with me. Chemicals, snow cones, a specific 1990s cultural moment ...

Let's go. Brain freeze ahead.

(1) (NB this not a carefully-crafted thread, it's me pulling stuff I just found and also I'm v tired so it might get extra weird 🤷‍♂️)

To start, please enjoy this Google Books Ngram, which you will see *takes off* in the early 1980s

(IDK what's happening in the 1860s)

(2)

I clearly have not spent enough time in fancy hotels or daydreaming about them because I don't have an answer to this question but now I wish I did

https://twitter.com/rachsyme/status/1499188568719245315

I guess my ideal hotel would be like a fancy hut in the woods with an outdoor hot tub its own library and delicious food/drinks delivered by pneumatic tube, where can I find this

Here's a quick food history thread about a candy mystery that was breaking my brain, which started with strawberry bon bons and led me to a candy-based courtship ritual that was wildly popular in the USA in the 1800s

Come along, it's fun

(1) I was wondering where these strawberry candies originated. They were always kind of around when I was a kid in the 1980s--like, at restaurants or in teachers' candy bowls. No idea where they came from, but they were definitely "old-fashioned" even then, 40 (yikes) years ago

(2)

bought some park service fonts and i will take requests for the next 10 minutes (don't make me regret that offer)

Gather round and hear the tale of the world's most famous ballerina in the early 1900s and her pet alligator named Goosh and also how she led to a DECADES-LONG FOOD FEUD between Australia and New Zealand

snackstack.net/p/the-snack-fo… I love the urgency of this headline from @smh in 1972

What is the snack food brand to which you're especially loyal and why is it a regional brand of potato chips Yes, I am eating those Old Dutch chips right now, how did you know

Wrote about how FDR introduced King George to hot dogs and it was a media spectacle that lasted for YEARS

snackstack.net/p/the-american… So back in May 1939, the American press had a few things on its mind, including the rise of the Nazi party in Germany ... but the thing that kept getting the big headlines was:

The King and Queen are coming! And WILL WE FEED THEM HOT DOGS???? It was a Pressing Issue:

Does anyone have a good explainer for why Minnesota has such high Covid numbers right now? Because seriously WTF Not great, dudes!!

A Twitter bot that does hourly posts with a random variation of "Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the [CONSUMER GOOD] herself." Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the King Arthur flour herself.

Begging reporters not to frame stories about conservative voters this way, with an emphasis on the vastness of the land they inhabit, as though that should give their votes and voices greater impact Source:
latimes.com/california/sto…

Hey, remember freedom fries?

I wrote about what they mean and their ongoing cultural resonance, 18 years later.

snackstack.net/p/the-snack-wi… Freedom fries started on February 2003 with a restaurant called Cubbie's, in North Carolina. Some Republican Congressmen liked the idea and—because they had the power to do so—made the House cafeteria change French fries to "freedom fries" and French toast to "Freedom toast."

Your annual 4th of July reminder that the United States still has five colonies 👇

https://mobile.twitter.com/andreagonram/status/1410765442805813252