You know what phrase always gives us pause? "Best thing since sliced bread." Really?

Is slicing bread that difficult? Perhaps more importantly: doesn't pre-sliced bread often taste worse than one you partition yourself?

And while sliced bread was a rather important invention (by the obviously goyishe Otto Rohwedder in 1928), we gotta go back a good six decades for an innovation that made it possible. For what good is it buying pre-sliced bread in stores if bread is not available in stores in the first place?

For that, we need to thank Jewish German immigrant Charles Louis Fleischmann. If that surname sounds familiar, it's because you can buy Fleischmann's Yeast even today. This was his big contribution: Fleischmann was the first to commercially produce yeast in America. Previously, you would have to go to a local baker to get your bread. After his innovation, bread became available in any store... which made it possible for Rohwedder to slice it.

So, "best thing since mass produced yeast"? Sadly, doesn't have the same ring to it...