game girl advance: The Earl of Invention

The Earl of Invention

Today (just barely) is November 3rd, which I was reminded of at a certain eatery is the birthday of one 4th Earl of Sandwich, John Montague.

Yes, John Montague was the inventer of the sandwich. That thing we all eat from occassion that was originally two slices of bread, meat and cheese and has evolved into everything from foccacia to goat cheese to sun-dried tomatoes.

Of course, you're wondering, "what does this have to do with gaming?"

Well, as it turns out, the Earl was quite the gambler. Evidently he loved playing cards so much that he preferred his meals be delivered to him in a fashion that would allow him to hold his cards with one hand while eating with the other, thus, the sandwich was born. It might not seem like much now in hindsight, but imagine what a social faux pas this was in the day when meals were quite the four course endeavor.

So we have a gamer (and gaming), even in its dated context, to thank for inventing something used in everyday life, and I'm beginning to wonder if there aren't other inventions (besides the obvious military trainers) that have come to light due to the more modern aspects of gaming.

Any thoughts? Anyone here come up with little things that they do while playing games that might have some significance on everyday life?

Posted by bowler at November 03, 2003 09:16 PM

Not to burst your bubble, but John Montague most certainly did not invent the sandwich... that's a popular urban legend. What he _did_ do was popularize it among the English nobility. To be honest, the Earl of Sandwich was probably most notable for being "the most detested man in England."

I wrote up a short biography of the old pervert here.

Posted by: ClockworkGrue on November 4, 2003 06:04 AM

Meh, even your write-up still pretty much supports the idea that he invented, if not at the very least popularized the sandwich. I mean, we could say that primitive man had been stabbing meat with a stick since the cave-man era, but I wouldn't give credit to them for inventing the fork.

If history has named it after him, that's good enough for me.

Posted by: Bowler on November 4, 2003 08:26 AM

If you are going with the "popularized if not invented" thing, then gaming can certainly take credit for the concept of home computing. From the Atari 2600 to the Apple ][c (that parents bought so their kids could "do school work") to today's cutting edge gaming rigs, games were (and I suspect still are) the major reason for people to have computers in their house.

Posted by: Interruptor Jones on November 4, 2003 10:03 AM

i know that my gaming buddies helped support the local 7-11. i mean, super big gulps just seem to be aimed at the all night gamers.

how about the desire to have portable gaming leading to things like pda's?

Posted by: charley on November 4, 2003 05:46 PM

Just to raise the nitpicking up several orders of magnitude:

"...has evolved into everything from foccacia to goat cheese to sun-dried tomatoes."

Honestly, that's not much of a range. Perhaps "...has evolved into everything from watercress and mayonnaise with the crusts cut off to half-pound burgers smothered in bacon, chili and cheese."

Plus, you know, foccacia's a bread and goat cheese and sun-dried tomatoes are filling...and all three are actually go quite well together, further diminishing a sense of range there.

Fine, I'm bored. I admit it. And now I'm hungry.

Posted by: anonymous gourmand on November 7, 2003 09:06 AM