APAD: It's the greatest thing since sliced bread
Meaning:
What a great idea (often expressed in a somewhat sarcastic way)
Background:
In 1928, Otto Frederick Rohwedder of Davenport, Iowa produced the first
commercially viable bread slicing machine. It was first put into use by the
Chillicothe Baking Company in Missouri who advertised the resulting product as
"the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped". It
is believed that this slogan provided the genesis of the "the greatest thing
since sliced bread" - which became a popular phrase around the middle of the
20th century.
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After decades of trying to invent, create, and prove myself smart with little
success, I started to doubt. Is it possible that all the greatest things before
and since sliced bread deliver us not? Labor-saving machines, e.g., turn out
abundance and make living more comfortable and yet comfort, above some level,
seems to hit diminishing returns.
An overdose can hurt, actually. When I was little, I dreamed to be a scientist,
the kind that don white coats, sit in the office, and have chauffeurs to drive
them around. (At the time, there were probably less than a dozen automobiles in
our little town.) Nowadays, everyone drives and people get sick more often from
a sedentary life style and maybe too much bread.