Late in the 1800s, two brothers were experimenting with new foods to enhance the variety of fare for their patients in a Michigan sanitarium. They accidentally left a batch of dough out overnight. In the morning, it was stale. But when they rolled out the dough, it turned into flakes.
They adapted the process to corn, added baking. And that is how corn flakes were invented by W.K. and J.H. Kellogg in Battle Creek, Michigan. Patients loved it so much, they ordered more, even after their recovery and departure from the sanitarium.
Like many great inventions, corn flakes was an accident that became a great social and business success — think Penicillin and Post-It Notes, among many others. But the kitchen mishap was the start of the mammoth Kellogg cereal empire that has launched countless billions of breakfasts around the world every day since 1894. With the help of a cartoon character who turns 73 this year.
The Midwestern company has been so successful, in fact, that an Italian candy giant has just decided to pay $3.1 billion to take over complete ownership of the iconic American brand called Kellogg's.
If only I hadn't sold that stock to finance someone's college education....
Just for fun, I looked up other products, companies, and institutions that are longtime American icons.
I was shocked! So many aren't American anymore. Some are even owned by China.
That's the subject of this week's audio commentary here. Let us know what you think of this phenomenon in the Comments.
In many ways, contemporary American politics in recent years have turned into a series of bizarre episodes populated by unusual, sometimes fascinating characters taking events in new and unexpected directions.
One of them, who is definitely not at all like the historic comet that is Donald Trump, is the fortunately departed vice president, Kamala Harris. Recently, she said she had decided not to seek her party's nomination to run for California governor.
Nobody had asked her to run. And many Democrats hope she chooses to duck a repeat run for president in 2028.
This week's Sunday column examines the career of the woman who made history simply by being consistently incompetent, usually incoherent, yet omnipresent. What is she doing now and planning for later, assisted by a complicit liberal media?
You can say, Who cares? Many have, and likely more will.
But her continued presence says something seriously revealing about the current squabbling state of the nation's national politics and much about the sad, shabby state of the Democrat Party that was so desperate to maintain a hold on Washington power that it put an ignorant incompetent up to become commander in chief and still refuses to face that disastrous choice.
Speaking of sad Democrats, the most recent audio commentary discussed one Democrat, a convicted criminal, drug addict, and deadbeat father who is now angrily attacking the political party he's belonged to and sullied his entire life. Apparently, with the consent of his discarded family.
Here's a recent professional recollection of my long life in mainstream U.S. media and the disappointing changes I've observed in it with the historic arrival of Donald Trump, who is changing history despite the consistent attacks.
