On 4 Aug 2006 16:00:59 +0200, Wayland >
wrote:

>So the Super Wal-Mart near me has "Value Added" French Bread with
>garlic Parmesan, rosemary herb, "everything" topping, and a couple
>others. When my roommate or myself buys loaves of these bread we try
>to inspect as much as possible to check for air bubbles. (Because I'm
>not fond of gaping holes in my sandwich.) Sometimes we have to resort
>to buying unsliced bread rather than sliced bread either because the
>sliced all has air bubbles or there's just no sliced available.
>
>So it's a little annoying to have to slice bread in the morning, but
>it's not too bad. Plus it actually gives you more control over your
>sandwich. It allows you to increase the ingredients to bread ratio
>without absolutely piling on the what you want in the sandwich. So
>while sliced bread is a nice convenience I don't quite see how it's
>the "greatest thing since sliced bread."
>
> ...what do you think?

If you had a large family to make lunch sandwiches for before
packing them off to work and school you might think idfferently.
When I was a small child un-sliced bread was the norm. We got our
bread at a bakery in our Finnish neighborhood and when they
bought a bread slicing machine it was considred a clear boon.

Nevertheless, I believe the phrase was originally intended to be
ironic.

************* DAVE HATUNEN ) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *

Hatunen wrote:
[...]
> If you had a large family to make lunch sandwiches for before
> packing them off to work and school you might think idfferently.
> When I was a small child un-sliced bread was the norm. We got our
> bread at a bakery in our Finnish neighborhood and when they
> bought a bread slicing machine it was considred a clear boon.
>
> Nevertheless, I believe the phrase was originally intended to be
> ironic.

As I've said, my intuition is that "sliced bread" refers to the
ready-sliced and wrapped stuff, not to classical bread which a baker
has put through his machine. That's bread which has been sliced, rather
than "sliced bread". I'm not at all sure that it even refers primarily
to reasonable-quality bread which comes sliced and packed. In Britain
at any rate, the first branded factory-sliced bread was the horrid kind
("Wonderloaf"? Maybe "Mother's Pride") and that's the image which the
phrase brings to my mind: ICBW, but I don't think you could generally
get it _except_ in the sliced form, so "sliced" was part of its
definition.

--
Mike.

wrote:
> Hatunen wrote:
> [...]
>> If you had a large family to make lunch sandwiches for before
>> packing them off to work and school you might think idfferently.
>> When I was a small child un-sliced bread was the norm. We got our
>> bread at a bakery in our Finnish neighborhood and when they
>> bought a bread slicing machine it was considred a clear boon.
>>
>> Nevertheless, I believe the phrase was originally intended to be
>> ironic.
>
> As I've said, my intuition is that "sliced bread" refers to the
> ready-sliced and wrapped stuff, not to classical bread which a baker
> has put through his machine. That's bread which has been sliced,
> rather than "sliced bread". I'm not at all sure that it even refers
> primarily to reasonable-quality bread which comes sliced and packed.
> In Britain at any rate, the first branded factory-sliced bread was
> the horrid kind ("Wonderloaf"? Maybe "Mother's Pride") and that's
> the
> image which the phrase brings to my mind: ICBW, but I don't think
> you
> could generally get it _except_ in the sliced form, so "sliced" was
> part of its definition.

When I was twenty and poor and in a far place (Little Ark Rockinsaw),
my friend and I would wander the streets accumulating impressions and
hunger. On the numerous occasions we managed this at appropriate
hours, we'd find our way to the local bakery of Sliced Bread (Wonder)
at the time the bread was still hot and unsliced. For twenty cents the
friendly baker would sell us an unsliced loaf so hot it melted the wax
on the spotted W'bread wrapper he provided. For a block or two and an
hour or two we were happy and un-hungry.

I remember learning the difference between French bread and anyone
else's was that it contained no milk products.

--
Frank ess

Frank ess wrote:
[...touching tale of privation bravely borne snipped...]
> I remember learning the difference between French bread and anyone
> else's was that it contained no milk products.

Not sure about milk products, but the reason French and other bread
doesn't keep is that it's very lean: the classic English-type bread
has, IIRC, an ounce of lard to a pound or two of flour.

--
Mike.

Hatunen wrote:
> On 4 Aug 2006 16:00:59 +0200, Wayland >
> wrote:
>
> >So the Super Wal-Mart near me has "Value Added" French Bread with
> >garlic Parmesan, rosemary herb, "everything" topping, and a couple
> >others. When my roommate or myself buys loaves of these bread we try
> >to inspect as much as possible to check for air bubbles. (Because I'm
> >not fond of gaping holes in my sandwich.) Sometimes we have to resort
> >to buying unsliced bread rather than sliced bread either because the
> >sliced all has air bubbles or there's just no sliced available.
> >
> >So it's a little annoying to have to slice bread in the morning, but
> >it's not too bad. Plus it actually gives you more control over your
> >sandwich. It allows you to increase the ingredients to bread ratio
> >without absolutely piling on the what you want in the sandwich. So
> >while sliced bread is a nice convenience I don't quite see how it's
> >the "greatest thing since sliced bread."
> >
> > ...what do you think?
>
> If you had a large family to make lunch sandwiches for before
> packing them off to work and school you might think idfferently.
> When I was a small child un-sliced bread was the norm. We got our
> bread at a bakery in our Finnish neighborhood and when they
> bought a bread slicing machine it was considred a clear boon.
>
> Nevertheless, I believe the phrase was originally intended to be
> ironic.

"Fortified with irony"

>
> ************* DAVE HATUNEN ) *************
> * Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
> * My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *