Amidst your moments of silence to reflect upon your incredible love for waffles, give a shout out for Cornelius Swartwout. He filed the first U.S. waffle iron patent in 1869. Thus, today in the U.S. is National Waffle Day. It’s still not viewed as important enough for most employers to grant a day off work, or for most cities to host a parade, or for greeting card companies to crank out a full range of readable, edible, hear-able, and smell-able products related to it, but you and I know how incredibly important this day is. Well, okay, at least I do.
(Pause to go shout from the rooftops, and to imagine a day filled with waffle party greeting cards, waffle gift baskets, songs about waffles on the radio, sensual waffle-scented gift fragrances, and so on.)
We’ve come a long and impressive way since then, with flip waffle irons, grids shaped like everything from hearts to farm animals, waffle makers with temperature adjustments and built-in timers, and so on. But whatever the technology, the same basic deliciousness and topping-worthy design of our beloved dish remains the same. So thanks again, revered C-Swart, for helping to make it all possible.