The Greatest Things Since Sliced Bread

According to Wikipedia:  “Sliced bread is a loaf of bread which has been pre-sliced and packaged for convenience. It was first sold in 1928, advertised as "the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped."  Yes, Wikipedia has an entry about sliced bread.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sliced_bread

The contents of the entry are:

    1 History

    2 Effects

    3 The 1943 U.S. ban on sliced bread

    4 Around the world

        4.1 Thickness by country

    5 Home slicing

    6 Popular culture

    7 Notes

    8 External links

Yes, there are different thickness standards in different countries.  There are two sentences discussing the options of home slicing.  Yes…there was a ban on sliced bread in 1943.  According to the entry, a letter was sent to The New York Times about this:  

"I should like to let you know how important sliced bread is to the morale and saneness of a household. My husband and four children are all in a rush during and after breakfast. Without ready-sliced bread I must do the slicing for toast—two pieces for each one—that's ten. For their lunches I must cut by hand at least twenty slices, for two sandwiches apiece. Afterward I make my own toast. Twenty-two slices of bread to be cut in a hurry!”

So, I thought I’d take just a quick moment to list the 25 greatest things since sliced bread, in my opinion, in no particular order: 

1. MP3 players
2. Cruise control
3. digital cameras
4. DVR
5. Caller ID
6. The Super Bowl
7. EZ Pass
8. James Brown
9. Miles Davis
10. Disco  (yes, I went there) and disco balls
11. Microsoft Excel
12. Chocolate-covered key lime pie on a stick
13. DNA tests, but only the ones Maury Povich does
14. The People’s Court
15. Howie Mandel’s fist bump
16. the Mountain Climber, Plinko, followed by the big wheel on the Price Is Right
17. Snooze alarms
18. macaroni & cheese
19. Super Mario Brothers (the original)
20. The electric bass and then the Moog bass
21. Pop rocks, with or without coke
22. Parachute pants
23. Paisley
24. ESPN
25. Spel-check

(Oops…the last one isn’t automatic…)

Agree?  Disagree?  Additions to the list?  If you want to have a really good group conversation, bring up a topic and ask people to rate their top 5, or top 10 of that topic.  Any topic:  football teams, music artists/groups, movies, Sesame Street characters, whatever, and watch the conversation take off into a series of debates about what should or shouldn't be on the list.  60% of the sports and entertainment industry is centered around the debate of who or what is the best - awards shows, ratings wars, etc.  

In the end, a conversation is really an exchange of ideas and thoughts.  Inherently in a conversation there are questions being answered, whether directly asked or subconscious to the conversation.  So...let's keep discussing our lists, our debating, and learning. 

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. - Albert Einstein