it’s National Spork Day!
The spoon/fork mashup got its start in the 1800s, so it’s a newbie compared to more utensils.
The knife has been around since the earliest days of tools, spoons go way, way back as well, and the fork is only young compared to its table setting neighbors.
Though for a while, using a fork at the table was a big problem – not functionally, but morally.
We can trace forks back to ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome.
These were not table forks; they were big ones used for cooking, like the ones your neighbor wields at the neighborhood cookout on Labor Day.
Table forks started showing up among Middle Eastern royals in the 600s, and they spread across much of central and eastern Europe in medieval times.
But there was pushback to these newfangled utensils.
The design is functional – the multiple tines can help keep food in place in a way a knife can’t – but some people didn’t like the idea of eating their food with something that resembled the devil’s pitchfork.
Other people thought they were kind of pretentious, and there were critics who figured the fork was completely unnecessary: they said fingers were better than any fork could ever be, so diners should just use what the Almighty had given them.
There’s even a story about a princess in the 11th Century who scandalized some observers by eating with a fork.
When her life was cut short by the plague several years after that, these commentators suggested it was divine retribution for using a fork (!)
In the 1600s, forks were widely used in Italy, and the rest of the continent followed suit as they heard about how useful these utensils really were.
These days they’re everywhere, and I don’t imagine we’re heading back to the days where we eschewed forks for our fingers.
After all, that would get in the way of checking our phones during meals!
Today in 1969, the start of the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival in Bethel, New York.
But that’s not the only spot where you can celebrate peace, love and music. You could instead visit Arcola, Illinois, which is home to a 62 foot long Hippie Memorial.
It was the work of local eccentric Bob Moomaw, and if you’re wondering whether there are others like it, the memorial sets you straight: it says “ONE AND ONLY!”
Can’t get much clearer than that, man.
FORKS (California Academy of Sciences)
One and Only Hippie Memorial (Roadside America)
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Photo by Chris via Flickr/Creative Commons