Confoundng Contraptions Ahead?

As I ripped a section of parchment paper to line a cookie sheet to make toast in the broiler….(I have a toaster but cinnamon-sugar toast is tastier from the oven)…I realized I had never seen my mother or my grandmothers use it. Wonder why?

I do remember the first time I saw it listed in a recipe, so I added it to the ingredients to purchase. Since the solitary remaining box was tucked at the end of the grocery shelf, it took a while to find the item new to me.

As they say, it’s the best thing since sliced bread, if for no other reason than zapping time. Baked items don’t stick and the paper is tossed in the trash. (I can’t explain why it doesn’t burn in the oven, though it did get a bit brown under the broiler. So does toast so it’s a quick process).

Speaking of sliced bread, I didn’t realize it first appeared for sale in Missouri, in a Chillecothe bakery! It was not an instant hit in 1928. It looked rather unappetizing since the slices flopped around inside the bag. The inventor of the bread-slicing machine - Otto Frederick Rohwedder - then came up with a u-shaped thingamajig that held the slices together so it looked more appealing. Instructions were included to tell the consumer how to open the wrapper, remove the pin and desired slices, then put it all back together again.

Don’t laugh. Ripley Countians had to read in their local weekly Prospect-News how to pull far enough up to the white lines to activate the red and green lights at the intersection of 142/160/21/Y when Doniphan’s first traffic light was installed.

Wonder what new contraptions will confound us in 2023?