Sporks - The Utensils of the 20th Century
Over the past century, fast food restaurants have been booming. Chains of restaurants such as McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Rally’s, Taco Bell, and Burger King have revolutionized society with fast, inexpensive, tasty foods that can be ordered across the country. With these new eateries, plastic utensils have also gained popularity. The drive-up window makes metal utensils obsolete. Customers would drive away with millions of dollars in silverware each year nationwide. Plastic provides cheap, acceptably durable alternatives to the traditional metal forks, spoons, and knives.
The plastic utensil revolution also featured a new implement in the arsenal of cutlery: the spork. A cross between a spoon and a fork, the spork has been the utensil of choice for years at Taco Bell, KFC, Rally’s, Popeye’s, and other restaurants and cafeterias nationwide. Its appeal extends not only from its unique versatility in the transfer of rations from plate to mouth, but also in its value as a plaything, a decorative item, and (to some misguided individuals) an item of inspirational worship.
According to a highly questionable rumor, the spork was invented in the 1940's by the United States army after conquering Japan. General MacArthur declared that eating with chopsticks was uncivilized, and the Japanese should eat with forks and spoons like the rest of the "civilized" world. However, there was some hesitation in the military about "arming" the civilians of the newly conquered land with forks, and so the spork was invented (ag592@yfn.edu). Despite this, the official patent on the name and concept of the "spork" is currently held by Van Brode Milling Co., Inc (shmit@spork.org).
Whatever their origin may be, ...
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...iration to people around the country to have established a cult following. Surprisingly, no metal utensil companies have taken note of the spork’s versatility and have sold them as a regular part of their utensil sets. The market for such an item would indeed seem large, based on the large, established following of the spork. Such a change could revolutionize the table setting routines of the world, eliminating the need for multiple utensils and lowering post-dinner dish washing requirements. Only time will tell if such ingenuity will be implemented in the utensil manufacturing industry.
Works Cited
ag592@yfn.edu (1994, February 2). The Spork FAQ (Revision 2.01) [WWW document]. URL http://www.sonic.net/~ian/Spork/spork.faq.html.
shmit@spork.org (1996, September 10). The Slightly Less Than Official Spork Page [WWW document]. URL http://www.spork.org.
Lindbergh also inspired many people to create works based on him. For example, a documentary created 2 years ago showed Lindbergh’s famous flight to Paris, postage stamps were created to honor Lindbergh, Mickey Mouse imitates Lindbergh in a short film last year, a song called the Lindbergh was released after the flight, and a lot more. Charles Lindbergh has revolutionized the world to us today, opening up the possibility of air travel for average citizens, like us. As of now, Charles Augustus Lindbergh is Time’s youngest Person of the Decade. Thank you, Charles, and we will always be in your debt.
Mintz, Sidney W. Tasting Food, Tasting Freedom: Excursions into Eating, Culture, and the Past. Boston: Beacon Press, 1996. [secondary source]
An important fact is that rice is not used to accompany the hot plate; on the contrary, the hot plates are used to accompany the rice. The broths and soups, unlike the West, are served several times as other foods. Soup usually is accompanied with fruits. On the table there should be 3 glasses of different sizes, the largest is used for drinking water, the medium for rice wine, and the smallest for liquor. The basic cover consists of a bowl, a plate, a pair of chopsticks, cup of tea and a porcelain spoon. Chopsticks are used to eat and to take food, but after lunch, they never are left in the plate, but next to the plate. People should not drink until the host has not raised his glass. A person never serves in its own glass; instead he serves to someone else, while that person will return the kindness. People should not be surprised if someone is slurping the soup while making a loud noise; it is the right way to prove that the soup is
Dansk Designs Ltd., founded in 1955, is a company that markets stainless steel flatware. The firm traditionally followed a strategy of differentiation. They produce high quality products for the “top of the table”. Their goal was to reach a small market segment, which consisted of upper class, prestigious customers. Dansk Designs wanted to sell the concept of the Dansk brand, and believed their consumers would purchase the Dansk products because of the prominent brand name and because the products were the very best in taste and quality. Ted Nierenberg, the founder of Dansk Designs has recently decided that he wants to keep Dansk growing at 15% to 20% per year. Nierenberg feels as if his current product line will not provide sufficient growth to meet his objectives, and believes it is in the company’s best interest to introduce a new line of house ware products called Dansk Gourmet Designs Ltd. Nierenberg believes they should market this new line to a much wider group of consumers at competitive prices. However, I believe that although expanding into a new market with a new product line will increase short-term revenues, in the long run it will be detrimental because the new line will dilute the brand identity of Dansk Designs. If Nierenberg wants to grow every year 15% to 20%, I believe he should consider ways to lower costs instead of increasing volume and revenues.
Throughout this chapter Schlosser takes his reader through the journey of the french fry from spud to stomach. Schlosser uses his talents to educate the world about the ins and outs of the processed food and flavor industry, informing the fast food nation, “Why the fries Taste Good.”
Commercial products have been around since the beginning of time. Manufacturing millions of products such as Ketchup for consumers to use daily. One might argue that buying house hold items can be such a hassle even for consumers who barely have time to get ready for work, let alone clean after themselves. The need for more items influences consumers to evolve from prehistoric cave dwellers into item entrepreneurs through introducing multiple platforms to spread news about a product, appealing visually for customers to go buy it, and demonstrating why traditional ways of doing things helps improve modern cultures to expand newer ideas for buyers to sell or buy as they please.
In Germany, it was believed that if a pregnant woman were to walk over a grave then the child will die. Also, if she goes to a cloth bleaching area, then her children will come out pale. During labor, the woman should put on the slippers of her husband.
Glassman, Bernard, and Rick Fields. Instructions To The Cook. 1st ed. New York: Bell Tower, 1996. Print.
On December 10th in 1948, the general assembly adopted a Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This declaration, although not legally binding, created “a common standard of achievement of all people and all nations…to promote respect for those rights and freedoms” (Goodhart, 379). However, many cultures assert that the human rights policies outlined in the declaration undermine cultural beliefs and practices. This assertion makes the search for universal human rights very difficult to achieve. I would like to focus on articles 3, 14 and 25 to address how these articles could be modified to incorporate cultural differences, without completely undermining the search for human rights practices.
Using plastic bags are second nature to people in this day and age. Warner acknowledges, “Much to the dismay of the environmentally conscious citizens worldwide, the ubiquity of the free plastic carryout bag has bred nonchalant consumers who take this modern convenience for granted” (646). Although some people are conscious about the environment, people strive more for convenience and do not think about the impacts using bags have not only on the environment, but on themselves as well. If something is bad for the environment, it will alternatively be bad for humans as well. When plastic bags are exposed to the sun from being littered all around, the ultraviolet rays cause the substances of plastic bags to weaken. After the substances weaken, the substances become invisible to the naked eye. The substances that are no longer able to be seen are toxic to humans (Warner 649). As a result of plastic bags being littered around, animals consume plastic bags. This is negatively affects humans because animals are often consumed. When humans consume animals like, fish, there can be plastic in the fish’s belly, which then transfers to the humans and this poses a concern for human’s health. Humans are negatively affected by plastic bags because of the toxic chemicals in plastic bags, as well as, consuming animals with plastic in their
The world has become very dependent upon plastic products. From household items to industry and aerospace, plastic in its many formulations has transformed modern manufacturing and created conveniences and economies unimagined in the early decades of the 20th century.
Driessen, G., & van Langen, A. (2013). Gender differences in primary and secondary education: Are girls really outperforming boys. International Review of Education, 59(1), 67-86.
Dan Bartlett (2014). Kitchen Brigade: Who Does What?. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.artinstitutes.edu/adv/files/kitchen_brigade.pdf. [Last Accessed 10 February 2014].
Being convenient enough for everyday use and even tasting better to some, plastic bottles are a popular way of consuming beverages. They are convenient and to some people, can even taste better. However, the process of manufacturing and transporting the millions of bottles produced is detrimental to the environment. Continued use of plastic bottles could exponentially hurt the planet.
Superstitions, what are they and where did they come from? Are they true are they false or is there some sort of reasoning behind them? Or are they simply just a whole lot of mumbo jumbo. I mean ….. awww man (meeoow) there goes a black cat man talk about bad luck it just took off with any luck that I had, (gosh darn – click fingers well lets see if its true…Mrs Maslen whadda ya reckon am I gonna get an A for this or what? C’mon c’mon you can tell me. Damn you cat (shake fist meeooow). Where did that superstition come from? For heavens sake how pathetic is it! Anyways for most people these are simply old wives tales and silly misconstrued stories, happenings and events. But for others these are real, they believe every word of these.