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American History

Only History Buffs Will Know the Fact from Fiction in these Unbelievable Stories

The Cardiff Giant. Messenger News
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As a matter of fact, Betty White is not the greatest thing since sliced bread – it is the other way around. Ellen Degeneres

11. Unfortunately, Betty White is Not The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread. She’s Still Pretty Awesome, Though

Gradual improvements to the bread-slicing machine-made loaves appear less sloppy, and sliced bread eventually gained in popularity until it became an American staple. By then, the over-the-top advertising puffery of Frederick Rohwedder’s invention had caught on with the public. It made the introduction of sliced bread a marker and frame of reference in the popular lexicon for subsequent claims of greatness. So, with that being said, could Betty White possibly be the greatest thing since sliced bread?

Well, America’s sweetheart and the most beloved grandmotherly icon was born on January 17, 1922. That was about six and a half years before the Chillicothe Baking Company sold its first loaf of sliced bread, on July 7th, 1928. Since her birth predates sliced bread, it follows that Betty White could not be the best thing since sliced bread. Thus, as a matter of straightforward historic fact, the answer must be in the negative: Betty White is not the best thing since sliced bread. However, sliced bread can make the argument that it is the best thing since Betty White.

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A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.

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