isomorphismes

• Beer, mead, wine, scotch, brandy, rum, gin, tequila, malt liquor
• bread
• soy sauce
• pho, sushi
• glass
• rope
• stitching, sewing, knitting, weaving
• pipes (the kind you smoke and the kind that carries fluids over long distances)
• French cuisine
• hand tools
• three-piece suits
• burritos, chiles rellenos, tortillas
• nails, bolts, ball bearings, gears
• tea, coffee
• cheese
• natural gas
• lye, bleach, indigo
• deadly poisons
• pubs, pub songs
• every sex act
• pockets
• dog breeding
• meditation
• anoraks
• containers (mugs, cups, pots, pans, skillets), lids, handles
• dancing
• copper smelting
• suspenders
• civil engineering (disposal of human waste, roads, aqueducts)
• shovels, hammers, picks, ladders, explosives
• stairs
• psychoactive drugs

All of the above were invented before the Periodic Table, before the electrification of rural OECD, and definitely before the quantum revolution. Which of the good things in life have been brought to us by quantum mechanics? I guess anything with plastic, transistor, or microchip in it.

Apparently the cutting-spoon, later known as the “spork”, was patented in 1908 by Haery L. McCoy, a godforsaken Minnesotan.

Nov. 24,1908

Be it known that I, Haery L. McCoY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Minneapolis, in the county of Hennepin and State of Minnesota, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in CuttingSpoons ; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.