Hey Smarty Pals! Forever Ago Host Joy Dolo is trying to pack all her camping gear for her big Memorial Day camping trip! Trouble is, Joy hates packing almost as much as she loves camping. Lucky for her, fellow camper and Brains On host Molly Bloom makes camping a breeze with our favorite Forever Ago game: First Things First!
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SUBJECT: Now entering Brains On headquarters.
JOY DOLO: Oh, hey, smarty pal. Joy Dolo from Forever Ago here. And I am stressing. I'm trying to pack for my big Memorial Day camping trip with Molly Bloom. And I've lost my favorite travel spork, and I can't find my stuffed unicorn Eloise. I just want to roast marshmallows, breathe some fresh air, stare at the clouds.
MOLLY BLOOM: You could do that when we're camping, Joy.
JOY DOLO: Oh. Hey, Molly. I'm packing. I'm packing lacking the tacking. You see?
[GLASS SHATTERS]
MOLLY BLOOM: Whoa. Joy, you need some help?
JOY DOLO: No, I'm fine.
[CLANKS]
Ouch. Totally fine. Out of my way, bowling ball. You are not coming camping.
[CLATTER]
Ah, what is my typewriter doing under my butt? I'm caught in a fishing net. Whoa! Why is packing so hard?
MOLLY BLOOM: I know, Joy. Packing can be kind of stressful.
JOY DOLO: It's like pulling teeth.
MOLLY BLOOM: It's like putting a turtleneck sweater on your cat. Tricky but necessary. We made a deal though, remember? You'd pack the camping supplies, and I'd pack the food.
JOY DOLO: I was just a girl when I made that promise. Everything seemed so easy back then. So simple and carefree.
MOLLY BLOOM: Joy, you made that promise 20 minutes ago.
JOY DOLO: Minutes or eons?
MOLLY BLOOM: Wow. OK, here's an idea. What if we make packing fun? Instead of just grabbing what we need, we could play First Things First with the things we need to pack.
JOY DOLO: Ooh, that could be fun. First Things First is one of my favorite games. It's where we try to guess the order things came in history, and then we find out the real order of events.
MOLLY BLOOM: It'll kick start the packing process.
JOY DOLO: OK, you've convinced me. Molly, let's play First Things First.
MOLLY BLOOM: All right. We've got a flashlight, a folding chair, and a sleeping bag. OK, Joy, which do you think was invented first? Which popped up second and which was created most recently? Is it the flashlight, the folding chair, or the first sleeping bag? What are you thinking?
JOY DOLO: Well, you know, I feel like these are all really great items, perfect for camping.
[BOTH LAUGHING]
First and foremost, let's start there.
MOLLY BLOOM: Yeah.
JOY DOLO: But, you know, I think that you put them in this order to fool me. So I'm actually going to work against you, Molly Bloom. I think that the first thing was a sleeping bag. Because people have been sleeping since I can remember for at least 20, 30, 40 years now.
MOLLY BLOOM: Truly. You know, I don't know the answer either. So we're doing it together.
JOY DOLO: Oh, that's true. That's true. OK, well, my first guess would be sleeping bags because I feel like that's the most essential.
MOLLY BLOOM: I'm with you. Yeah.
JOY DOLO: Because like-- and then a folding chair probably after that. Because that also seems like, what is it like, plastic and metal that you just kind of fold around. And I remember seeing that in a bunch of old.
MOLLY BLOOM: I've seen wooden ones too, though.
JOY DOLO: You've seen a wooden folding chair?
MOLLY BLOOM: Yeah.
JOY DOLO: Oh, yeah. So maybe that's from like 1500s or something?
MOLLY BLOOM: Maybe.
JOY DOLO: King Charles sitting in a fold--
MOLLY BLOOM: Holly Ben Franklin invented it. He invents everything.
JOY DOLO: He does everything. Well, then and then the flashlight makes the most sense as the last one because of batteries, right? So it's like battery operated.
MOLLY BLOOM: Yeah.
JOY DOLO: So I think I'm going to go sleeping bag, folding chair, flashlight.
MOLLY BLOOM: I agree with you.
JOY DOLO: Final answer.
MOLLY BLOOM: OK. Shall we see what it is?
JOY DOLO: Yeah. Oh, I'm nervous.
MOLLY BLOOM: OK.
JOY DOLO: Oh!
MOLLY BLOOM: Here's the big reveal. The answer is-- oh, we were wrong. The oldest thing is--
JOY DOLO: Folding chairs. What? More than 4,000 years ago. So like wood, probably.
MOLLY BLOOM: Not Ben Franklin.
JOY DOLO: Not Ben Franklin. He wasn't around then. Folding chairs, just like the ones we use today, were used in Mesopotamia. That was an ancient civilization in the Middle East, which includes parts of Iraq and Turkey. Ancient Egyptians also used folding chairs mostly as mobile thrones for royalty. Why don't you go for one of those?
MOLLY BLOOM: [LAUGHS]
JOY DOLO: Archeologists even found two folding chairs in the tomb of King Tut.
MOLLY BLOOM: OK, so the second one is sleeping bag, invented in 1876.
JOY DOLO: I don't believe it.
MOLLY BLOOM: It seems like it's got to be older than that. But people have been using rolls up animal skins to stay warm at night for thousands of years. OK, OK.
JOY DOLO: I was right. OK, I'll take that.
MOLLY BLOOM: But the sleeping bag, as we know today, was relatively recent. The first patent for a sleeping bag was issued in 1876 to a Welsh inventor named Pryce-Jones. It was basically a folded over wool blanket with a rubber inflatable pillow sewn in. So it's like the pillow that gets the patent, I guess?
JOY DOLO: Yeah, the pillow gets the patent.
MOLLY BLOOM: Because otherwise, it seems like you're patenting a blanket.
JOY DOLO: Yeah, because blankets have been around for a longer time. I don't know if I buy this.
MOLLY BLOOM: Yeah, you know. We're going to quibble. We're quibbling.
JOY DOLO: I'm quibbling. Ultimate quibble. The last is flashlight. And we were right about that.
MOLLY BLOOM: Yes.
JOY DOLO: 1898. The first flashlight was invented then in 1898. And it actually looked a lot like the flashlights we have today. It wouldn't have been possible without another invention a few years earlier, dry cell batteries, which is what I said batteries. These are batteries that could work in any position without leaking. Eww.
[BOTH LAUGHING]
Leaky batteries. These made all sorts of portable electronics possible. And one of the most obvious things to portable eyes was light. Can't see in the dark. I used to be afraid of the dark.
MOLLY BLOOM: Me too.
JOY DOLO: How old were you when you are afraid?
MOLLY BLOOM: Like really old.
JOY DOLO: Like a few weeks ago?
[BOTH LAUGHING]
Like it just happened.
MOLLY BLOOM: [LAUGHS]
JOY DOLO: The American electrical novelty and manufacturing company sold some of the first flashlights, which they called electric hand torches. The nickname flashlight came around because these batteries weren't very strong. So the light could only stay on for a few seconds. In other words, you just got flashes of it.
MOLLY BLOOM: So flashlights kind of like a dig. It's like, huh, it's a flashlight.
JOY DOLO: It's a flashlight. That's just a quick flash.
MOLLY BLOOM: Interesting.
JOY DOLO: Look at that. Well, we were wrong but we-- that's OK.
MOLLY BLOOM: But we have a lot of heart.
JOY DOLO: We have heart. We have hope. We have promise. I just-- I love First Things First.
MOLLY BLOOM: Me too.
JOY DOLO: Now, all we have to pack is our dinner. I love dinner.
MOLLY BLOOM: Wait, but I thought I was packing the food. I already packed the best snacks.
JOY DOLO: The last time you said that, we ended up eating pickled crickets. I do not believe you.
MOLLY BLOOM: Pickled crickets are full of fiber and taste great.
JOY DOLO: Gross.
MOLLY BLOOM: Plus I packed a bunch of other really yummy stuff, I promise. I wonder where Marc is? He was supposed to pick us up in the Explorer.
JOY DOLO: It's not personal, but I have very high snack standards, Molly. Anybody that knows me knows that I love snacks. They don't call me the snack queen of the Midwest for nothing. And it's not just my mom who calls me that. Other people call me that. How about we play just one more round of First Things First while we wait?
MOLLY BLOOM: OK, good idea. Where is my cooler?
JOY DOLO: No, no. It's my turn to be game master with the foods I picked. I present to you hot dogs, potato chips, and s'mores. Which do you think came first, which came second, and which came most recently? OK, Molly. Which one is oldest in your mind?
MOLLY BLOOM: I'm going to go hot dogs.
JOY DOLO: Hot dogs?
MOLLY BLOOM: The tubed meat. I feel like.
JOY DOLO: It's a classic.
MOLLY BLOOM: Germans, they love that.
JOY DOLO: Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: It must have been around for a long time.
JOY DOLO: Good. Good, hot dogs. OK.
MOLLY BLOOM: I want potato chips. So you just have to slice up a potato.
JOY DOLO: Easy peasy. Potatoes have been around.
MOLLY BLOOM: They've been around--
JOY DOLO: As well as sleeping bags.
MOLLY BLOOM: Exactly.
JOY DOLO: [LAUGHS]
MOLLY BLOOM: And then s'mores. Because I feel like those kind of marshmallows are probably newer. It seems like you had to have some technology to make those fluffy puffy.
JOY DOLO: Um-hmm.
MOLLY BLOOM: Jet puffs marshmallows.
JOY DOLO: Some kind of nuclear energy.
MOLLY BLOOM: Um-hmm. Exactly.
JOY DOLO: [LAUGHS] That's what's in that.
MOLLY BLOOM: So that's what I'm thinking, hot dogs, potato chips, and s'mores, which is the order it was given to us. You gave it to me. So I don't know. I don't know. But who knows?
JOY DOLO: You know, maybe it's my trickery coming out again. I am an Aquarius.
[BOTH LAUGHING]
All right, let's reveal which of our First Things First is actually the oldest. Oh, my gosh. Molly, you nailed it!
MOLLY BLOOM: Oh, my gosh!
JOY DOLO: Molly Bloom for the win. You're going to be the snack queen of the Midwest soon.
MOLLY BLOOM: We can share, joint queens. Joint snack queen.
JOY DOLO: We can do it-- we can share for a while, but I do need my own throne.
[BOTH LAUGHING]
So hot dogs. In the late 1400s, they were made. The tubed meat. Making sausages goes back almost 2,000 years to the ancient Roman Empire, which legend has it, a cook had the idea of stuffing pig intestines with meat and spices.
But the modern hot dog has its roots in Germany, like you said. So you're right. Two different German towns claim to be the birthplace of this delicious doggy. Frankfurt claims the Frankfurter was invented there in 1484, whereas Vienna or Vernon or Wien, Wien in Germany, claims they invented the wienerwurst, the wienerwurst around the same time. It sounds like universe.
MOLLY BLOOM: Wienerwurst.
JOY DOLO: Like all in the wienerwurst.
[BOTH LAUGHING]
MOLLY BLOOM: That's the next Marvel empire.
JOY DOLO: Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: The wienerwurst.
JOY DOLO: The wienerwurst. Either way, we know that German immigrants began selling sausages out of pushcarts in New York City in the 1860s. Hot dogs, get you hot dogs.
MOLLY BLOOM: All right. So then next, we got potato chips.
JOY DOLO: Um-hmm.
MOLLY BLOOM: We still, like hot dogs, don't know who the true inventor is. But there's a story that in the 1850s, a chef named George Crumb was working at a restaurant in Saratoga Springs, New York. Local legend claims that the classic snack was invented there in 1853 when a grumpy restaurant customer sent their French fries back for being too thick.
JOY DOLO: [LAUGHS]
MOLLY BLOOM: Crumb was feeling sassy, so he cut them super thin. As a sort of ha, I'll show you. But guess what, everyone love them because potato chips are delicious.
JOY DOLO: Oh, bless you, customer. Bless you.
[BOTH LAUGHING]
MOLLY BLOOM: But some people think the inventor was maybe a British doctor named William Kitchener, who in 1817, published a recipe for potatoes fried in slices or shavings.
JOY DOLO: I don't care how potato chips got here. I'm just so grateful that they're here.
MOLLY BLOOM: As long as they're in my mouth.
JOY DOLO: As long as they're in and around my mouth. I'm all good. And last and certainly not least is s'mores. And those were invented in 1927. There is some disagreement about who exactly came up with the recipe.
But we do know the score dates back to at least 1927. That's when the first recipe was published in a Girl Scout guide. It was written by troop leader Loretta Scott crew, and it was originally called some more, s'mores. Some more, do you get it?
MOLLY BLOOM: Hmm.
JOY DOLO: Do you get it?
MOLLY BLOOM: Some more.
JOY DOLO: Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: I want some more. S'mores.
JOY DOLO: S'mores. Some more.
[BOTH LAUGHING]
It's unclear exactly when the name was shortened to s'more. But you can find references of the treat being called some more until 1971. Yum.
MOLLY BLOOM: OK. Thank you Girl Scouts for your amazing cookies.
JOY DOLO: Forever. And s'mores.
MOLLY BLOOM: And s'mores.
JOY DOLO: I have so much to thank them for.
MOLLY BLOOM: Oh, incredible. Also, I have to say, the fact that we don't know who invented any of these snacks feels like there might be an opening here for us snackologist.
JOY DOLO: Oh.
MOLLY BLOOM: Maybe a field of snack studies to be established--
JOY DOLO: A doctor snacks.
MOLLY BLOOM: Yes. And Joy, as the queen of the Midwest, maybe you should.
JOY DOLO: Maybe I should open up my reign to the medical community.
[BOTH LAUGHING]
With snackologist re out there.
MOLLY BLOOM: Snack studies.
JOY DOLO: Yeah. [LAUGHS]
MOLLY BLOOM: OK. Joy, you've told me, I'm very excited for these traditional camping foods. But seriously, you don't even want one pickled cricket?
JOY DOLO: All right. Let me just try one.
[CRUNCH] Oh. Wow. You were right. They're tangy, and salty, and not as crickety as I thought they'd be.
[CAR HONKS]
MOLLY BLOOM: Oh, there's the Explorer. Marc's here. We got to go.
[CAR HONKS]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JOY DOLO: That's it for the smarty pass episode. It was produced by [LISTING HONOR ROLL]
MOLLY BLOOM: We had sound design by [LISTING HONOR ROLL] Our executive producer is [LISTING HONOR ROLL] And the executives in charge of APM Studios are [LISTING HONOR ROLL] Brains On is a nonprofit public radio program. Thank you, smarty pass, friends. Bye.
JOY DOLO: Bye.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JOY DOLO: Oh, hey, smarty pal. Joy Dolo from Forever Ago here. And I am stressing. I'm trying to pack for my big Memorial Day camping trip with Molly Bloom. And I've lost my favorite travel spork, and I can't find my stuffed unicorn Eloise. I just want to roast marshmallows, breathe some fresh air, stare at the clouds.
MOLLY BLOOM: You could do that when we're camping, Joy.
JOY DOLO: Oh. Hey, Molly. I'm packing. I'm packing lacking the tacking. You see?
[GLASS SHATTERS]
MOLLY BLOOM: Whoa. Joy, you need some help?
JOY DOLO: No, I'm fine.
[CLANKS]
Ouch. Totally fine. Out of my way, bowling ball. You are not coming camping.
[CLATTER]
Ah, what is my typewriter doing under my butt? I'm caught in a fishing net. Whoa! Why is packing so hard?
MOLLY BLOOM: I know, Joy. Packing can be kind of stressful.
JOY DOLO: It's like pulling teeth.
MOLLY BLOOM: It's like putting a turtleneck sweater on your cat. Tricky but necessary. We made a deal though, remember? You'd pack the camping supplies, and I'd pack the food.
JOY DOLO: I was just a girl when I made that promise. Everything seemed so easy back then. So simple and carefree.
MOLLY BLOOM: Joy, you made that promise 20 minutes ago.
JOY DOLO: Minutes or eons?
MOLLY BLOOM: Wow. OK, here's an idea. What if we make packing fun? Instead of just grabbing what we need, we could play First Things First with the things we need to pack.
JOY DOLO: Ooh, that could be fun. First Things First is one of my favorite games. It's where we try to guess the order things came in history, and then we find out the real order of events.
MOLLY BLOOM: It'll kick start the packing process.
JOY DOLO: OK, you've convinced me. Molly, let's play First Things First.
MOLLY BLOOM: All right. We've got a flashlight, a folding chair, and a sleeping bag. OK, Joy, which do you think was invented first? Which popped up second and which was created most recently? Is it the flashlight, the folding chair, or the first sleeping bag? What are you thinking?
JOY DOLO: Well, you know, I feel like these are all really great items, perfect for camping.
[BOTH LAUGHING]
First and foremost, let's start there.
MOLLY BLOOM: Yeah.
JOY DOLO: But, you know, I think that you put them in this order to fool me. So I'm actually going to work against you, Molly Bloom. I think that the first thing was a sleeping bag. Because people have been sleeping since I can remember for at least 20, 30, 40 years now.
MOLLY BLOOM: Truly. You know, I don't know the answer either. So we're doing it together.
JOY DOLO: Oh, that's true. That's true. OK, well, my first guess would be sleeping bags because I feel like that's the most essential.
MOLLY BLOOM: I'm with you. Yeah.
JOY DOLO: Because like-- and then a folding chair probably after that. Because that also seems like, what is it like, plastic and metal that you just kind of fold around. And I remember seeing that in a bunch of old.
MOLLY BLOOM: I've seen wooden ones too, though.
JOY DOLO: You've seen a wooden folding chair?
MOLLY BLOOM: Yeah.
JOY DOLO: Oh, yeah. So maybe that's from like 1500s or something?
MOLLY BLOOM: Maybe.
JOY DOLO: King Charles sitting in a fold--
MOLLY BLOOM: Holly Ben Franklin invented it. He invents everything.
JOY DOLO: He does everything. Well, then and then the flashlight makes the most sense as the last one because of batteries, right? So it's like battery operated.
MOLLY BLOOM: Yeah.
JOY DOLO: So I think I'm going to go sleeping bag, folding chair, flashlight.
MOLLY BLOOM: I agree with you.
JOY DOLO: Final answer.
MOLLY BLOOM: OK. Shall we see what it is?
JOY DOLO: Yeah. Oh, I'm nervous.
MOLLY BLOOM: OK.
JOY DOLO: Oh!
MOLLY BLOOM: Here's the big reveal. The answer is-- oh, we were wrong. The oldest thing is--
JOY DOLO: Folding chairs. What? More than 4,000 years ago. So like wood, probably.
MOLLY BLOOM: Not Ben Franklin.
JOY DOLO: Not Ben Franklin. He wasn't around then. Folding chairs, just like the ones we use today, were used in Mesopotamia. That was an ancient civilization in the Middle East, which includes parts of Iraq and Turkey. Ancient Egyptians also used folding chairs mostly as mobile thrones for royalty. Why don't you go for one of those?
MOLLY BLOOM: [LAUGHS]
JOY DOLO: Archeologists even found two folding chairs in the tomb of King Tut.
MOLLY BLOOM: OK, so the second one is sleeping bag, invented in 1876.
JOY DOLO: I don't believe it.
MOLLY BLOOM: It seems like it's got to be older than that. But people have been using rolls up animal skins to stay warm at night for thousands of years. OK, OK.
JOY DOLO: I was right. OK, I'll take that.
MOLLY BLOOM: But the sleeping bag, as we know today, was relatively recent. The first patent for a sleeping bag was issued in 1876 to a Welsh inventor named Pryce-Jones. It was basically a folded over wool blanket with a rubber inflatable pillow sewn in. So it's like the pillow that gets the patent, I guess?
JOY DOLO: Yeah, the pillow gets the patent.
MOLLY BLOOM: Because otherwise, it seems like you're patenting a blanket.
JOY DOLO: Yeah, because blankets have been around for a longer time. I don't know if I buy this.
MOLLY BLOOM: Yeah, you know. We're going to quibble. We're quibbling.
JOY DOLO: I'm quibbling. Ultimate quibble. The last is flashlight. And we were right about that.
MOLLY BLOOM: Yes.
JOY DOLO: 1898. The first flashlight was invented then in 1898. And it actually looked a lot like the flashlights we have today. It wouldn't have been possible without another invention a few years earlier, dry cell batteries, which is what I said batteries. These are batteries that could work in any position without leaking. Eww.
[BOTH LAUGHING]
Leaky batteries. These made all sorts of portable electronics possible. And one of the most obvious things to portable eyes was light. Can't see in the dark. I used to be afraid of the dark.
MOLLY BLOOM: Me too.
JOY DOLO: How old were you when you are afraid?
MOLLY BLOOM: Like really old.
JOY DOLO: Like a few weeks ago?
[BOTH LAUGHING]
Like it just happened.
MOLLY BLOOM: [LAUGHS]
JOY DOLO: The American electrical novelty and manufacturing company sold some of the first flashlights, which they called electric hand torches. The nickname flashlight came around because these batteries weren't very strong. So the light could only stay on for a few seconds. In other words, you just got flashes of it.
MOLLY BLOOM: So flashlights kind of like a dig. It's like, huh, it's a flashlight.
JOY DOLO: It's a flashlight. That's just a quick flash.
MOLLY BLOOM: Interesting.
JOY DOLO: Look at that. Well, we were wrong but we-- that's OK.
MOLLY BLOOM: But we have a lot of heart.
JOY DOLO: We have heart. We have hope. We have promise. I just-- I love First Things First.
MOLLY BLOOM: Me too.
JOY DOLO: Now, all we have to pack is our dinner. I love dinner.
MOLLY BLOOM: Wait, but I thought I was packing the food. I already packed the best snacks.
JOY DOLO: The last time you said that, we ended up eating pickled crickets. I do not believe you.
MOLLY BLOOM: Pickled crickets are full of fiber and taste great.
JOY DOLO: Gross.
MOLLY BLOOM: Plus I packed a bunch of other really yummy stuff, I promise. I wonder where Marc is? He was supposed to pick us up in the Explorer.
JOY DOLO: It's not personal, but I have very high snack standards, Molly. Anybody that knows me knows that I love snacks. They don't call me the snack queen of the Midwest for nothing. And it's not just my mom who calls me that. Other people call me that. How about we play just one more round of First Things First while we wait?
MOLLY BLOOM: OK, good idea. Where is my cooler?
JOY DOLO: No, no. It's my turn to be game master with the foods I picked. I present to you hot dogs, potato chips, and s'mores. Which do you think came first, which came second, and which came most recently? OK, Molly. Which one is oldest in your mind?
MOLLY BLOOM: I'm going to go hot dogs.
JOY DOLO: Hot dogs?
MOLLY BLOOM: The tubed meat. I feel like.
JOY DOLO: It's a classic.
MOLLY BLOOM: Germans, they love that.
JOY DOLO: Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: It must have been around for a long time.
JOY DOLO: Good. Good, hot dogs. OK.
MOLLY BLOOM: I want potato chips. So you just have to slice up a potato.
JOY DOLO: Easy peasy. Potatoes have been around.
MOLLY BLOOM: They've been around--
JOY DOLO: As well as sleeping bags.
MOLLY BLOOM: Exactly.
JOY DOLO: [LAUGHS]
MOLLY BLOOM: And then s'mores. Because I feel like those kind of marshmallows are probably newer. It seems like you had to have some technology to make those fluffy puffy.
JOY DOLO: Um-hmm.
MOLLY BLOOM: Jet puffs marshmallows.
JOY DOLO: Some kind of nuclear energy.
MOLLY BLOOM: Um-hmm. Exactly.
JOY DOLO: [LAUGHS] That's what's in that.
MOLLY BLOOM: So that's what I'm thinking, hot dogs, potato chips, and s'mores, which is the order it was given to us. You gave it to me. So I don't know. I don't know. But who knows?
JOY DOLO: You know, maybe it's my trickery coming out again. I am an Aquarius.
[BOTH LAUGHING]
All right, let's reveal which of our First Things First is actually the oldest. Oh, my gosh. Molly, you nailed it!
MOLLY BLOOM: Oh, my gosh!
JOY DOLO: Molly Bloom for the win. You're going to be the snack queen of the Midwest soon.
MOLLY BLOOM: We can share, joint queens. Joint snack queen.
JOY DOLO: We can do it-- we can share for a while, but I do need my own throne.
[BOTH LAUGHING]
So hot dogs. In the late 1400s, they were made. The tubed meat. Making sausages goes back almost 2,000 years to the ancient Roman Empire, which legend has it, a cook had the idea of stuffing pig intestines with meat and spices.
But the modern hot dog has its roots in Germany, like you said. So you're right. Two different German towns claim to be the birthplace of this delicious doggy. Frankfurt claims the Frankfurter was invented there in 1484, whereas Vienna or Vernon or Wien, Wien in Germany, claims they invented the wienerwurst, the wienerwurst around the same time. It sounds like universe.
MOLLY BLOOM: Wienerwurst.
JOY DOLO: Like all in the wienerwurst.
[BOTH LAUGHING]
MOLLY BLOOM: That's the next Marvel empire.
JOY DOLO: Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: The wienerwurst.
JOY DOLO: The wienerwurst. Either way, we know that German immigrants began selling sausages out of pushcarts in New York City in the 1860s. Hot dogs, get you hot dogs.
MOLLY BLOOM: All right. So then next, we got potato chips.
JOY DOLO: Um-hmm.
MOLLY BLOOM: We still, like hot dogs, don't know who the true inventor is. But there's a story that in the 1850s, a chef named George Crumb was working at a restaurant in Saratoga Springs, New York. Local legend claims that the classic snack was invented there in 1853 when a grumpy restaurant customer sent their French fries back for being too thick.
JOY DOLO: [LAUGHS]
MOLLY BLOOM: Crumb was feeling sassy, so he cut them super thin. As a sort of ha, I'll show you. But guess what, everyone love them because potato chips are delicious.
JOY DOLO: Oh, bless you, customer. Bless you.
[BOTH LAUGHING]
MOLLY BLOOM: But some people think the inventor was maybe a British doctor named William Kitchener, who in 1817, published a recipe for potatoes fried in slices or shavings.
JOY DOLO: I don't care how potato chips got here. I'm just so grateful that they're here.
MOLLY BLOOM: As long as they're in my mouth.
JOY DOLO: As long as they're in and around my mouth. I'm all good. And last and certainly not least is s'mores. And those were invented in 1927. There is some disagreement about who exactly came up with the recipe.
But we do know the score dates back to at least 1927. That's when the first recipe was published in a Girl Scout guide. It was written by troop leader Loretta Scott crew, and it was originally called some more, s'mores. Some more, do you get it?
MOLLY BLOOM: Hmm.
JOY DOLO: Do you get it?
MOLLY BLOOM: Some more.
JOY DOLO: Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: I want some more. S'mores.
JOY DOLO: S'mores. Some more.
[BOTH LAUGHING]
It's unclear exactly when the name was shortened to s'more. But you can find references of the treat being called some more until 1971. Yum.
MOLLY BLOOM: OK. Thank you Girl Scouts for your amazing cookies.
JOY DOLO: Forever. And s'mores.
MOLLY BLOOM: And s'mores.
JOY DOLO: I have so much to thank them for.
MOLLY BLOOM: Oh, incredible. Also, I have to say, the fact that we don't know who invented any of these snacks feels like there might be an opening here for us snackologist.
JOY DOLO: Oh.
MOLLY BLOOM: Maybe a field of snack studies to be established--
JOY DOLO: A doctor snacks.
MOLLY BLOOM: Yes. And Joy, as the queen of the Midwest, maybe you should.
JOY DOLO: Maybe I should open up my reign to the medical community.
[BOTH LAUGHING]
With snackologist re out there.
MOLLY BLOOM: Snack studies.
JOY DOLO: Yeah. [LAUGHS]
MOLLY BLOOM: OK. Joy, you've told me, I'm very excited for these traditional camping foods. But seriously, you don't even want one pickled cricket?
JOY DOLO: All right. Let me just try one.
[CRUNCH] Oh. Wow. You were right. They're tangy, and salty, and not as crickety as I thought they'd be.
[CAR HONKS]
MOLLY BLOOM: Oh, there's the Explorer. Marc's here. We got to go.
[CAR HONKS]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JOY DOLO: That's it for the smarty pass episode. It was produced by [LISTING HONOR ROLL]
MOLLY BLOOM: We had sound design by [LISTING HONOR ROLL] Our executive producer is [LISTING HONOR ROLL] And the executives in charge of APM Studios are [LISTING HONOR ROLL] Brains On is a nonprofit public radio program. Thank you, smarty pass, friends. Bye.
JOY DOLO: Bye.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
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