It was today in 1932 that the makers of the cheese curl applied for a patent for their creation.
Only their creation was supposed to be something entirely different.
This cheesy, messy snack treat has more than one origin story.
One of them begins in Beloit, Wisconsin.
A producer of animal feed had taken to running its corn through a grinder, to make its feed more efficient and easier to store.
But corn kept getting caught in the machine and slowing the factory down.
They decided to moisten the corn to make it easier to grind, but then something unexpected happened.
Instead of ending up with flaked corn as they planned, the heat of the machine caused the moist kernels to puff out.
One of the employees, Edward Wilson, took some of them home, added some seasonings and decided this unsuccessful attempt at animal feed would work out great as a snack for humans originally called Korn Kurls.
Around this same time, the Elmer Candy Corporation in New Orleans was looking to stay afloat during the Great Depression by branching out into other types of food.
The Elmer Brothers got an animal feed machine they’d seen in Chicago and reengineered it to produce a snack from cornmeal they called CheeWees.
Whichever came first, the net result is that we’re living in a world filled with cheese puffs, Cheese Doodles, Cheetos, cheese balls, millions of people partaking in cheese curl goodness – and, of course, keeping towels handy to wash off the excess cheese dust.
LEGO enthusiasts know that the universe known as LEGO City is bustling – you can find all sorts of people and all sorts of vehicles roaming around town.
But the flat pieces you build on only have lanes for cars and trucks.
An official in the Netherlands, Marcel Stemaan, proposed adding bike lanes to the LEGO streets, just like a growing number of real life communities.
Just so long as the LEGO characters dressed like hot dogs have a place to ride.
Junk Food’s Happiest Accident (Tedium)
Elmer’s Cheesy History (Elmer’s CheeWees)
LEGO bike lanes might be on their way thanks to this idea (Designboom)
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Cheese curls photo by Mike Mozart via Flickr/Creative Commons
