The Original Swarthout waffle iron (from Swarthout Family website)
I know this doesn’t have anything to do with beverages, but it does have something special to do with nutritional intake of another sort.
Monday is August 24.
So what? you say. Well, August 24 is National Waffle Day.
In Upstate New York, that has special meaning. Not simply because the region has so many International House of Pancakes restaurants, local diners and others such places that turn out waffles as if they were … hot cakes. But as the home of Cornelius Swarthout.
Swarthout, a resident of Troy, invented a waffle iron and, on August 24, 1869, got the first U.S. patent for such a device.
There also is an International Waffle Day, celebrated each March 25 and formally known as Våffeldagen in Sweden, where it originated.
Before Swarthout got his U.S. patent, there were, of course, waffles of various sorts used throughout the world. Thomas Jefferson, Mr. Innovation himself, even brought back a long-handled version from France in the 18th Century to use at home in Monticello, VA.
However, honor your own, I always say, so on Monday go out for a nice waffle breakfast and thank Cornelius Swarthout for helping make it such an American staple.
It’s a lot better to remember than some other things August 24 is known for — such as the eruption of Mount Vesuvius that buried Pompeii and Herculaneum in A.D. 79, and the demotion of Pluto to minor planet status in 2006.
Go to my Upstate Restaurant Examiner column or my National Drinks Examiner column on the Examiner.com Web site.