This must have been one of the most brilliant marketing campaigns I’ve seen in a while. Was at Pseudonaja’s place some time ago when I first saw a Spork (Spoon, Fork and Knife all in one) contraption.
Where do Sporks come from? (Brief History of Sporks taken from The Spork FAQ)
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It would appear that the spork has a very long, and interesting history. pali151@netcom.com writes:
The Spork is actually nothing more than a plastic descendant of the runcible spoon, the earliest mention of which I’ve found in Lewis Carrol’s “The Walrus & the Carpenter.”
And, then there’s this little tidbit of info contributed by Chris McCarter (mutant@tmn.com):
the Spork was invented not in the ’60s, but in the 40’s. when the US army occupied Japan after the war, general McArthur (who wanted Truman to enthrone him as emperor of Japan) decreed that the use of chopsticks was uncivilized, and the conquered foe should use forks and spoons like the rest of the ‘civilized’ world. Fearing that the Japs might rise up and retake their country with their forks, he and the us army invented the ‘Spork,’ which was then introduced into the public schools. The army, which had taken over all government enterprises and the schools, enforced the use of the ‘Spork,’ and made the use of chopsticks in the schools a punishable offense. This is a bit of Spork history that’s absolutely true, but not very funny.
In more contemporary times, the Spork has obtained the status of an urban legend. Sometime in the 1960’s, they started appearing at fast food restaurants, the first being Kentucky Fried Chicken. Later, other chains had Sporks, including Taco Bell, and even a few McDonald’s stores.
It has been suggested that the disappearance of Sporks at KFC and Taco Bell may have something to do with Pepsico’s buyout of these companies. Any one with info on this please mail us.
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Since I don’t have to worry about etiquette and table manners while eating and working alone at home, I’m definitely getting myself one as they make eating and typing / coding so much easier! WOOT!!!
Those are groovy.
I’d like one made of stainless steel :)
Mmm, that would even be better!
Stainless steel won’t work. When you eat with the spoon side the ends of the fork tends to dig into your hand a bit. It’ll hurt…
The only thing this isn’t good for is meat, where you sometimes need to skewer it and then slice it with a sharp knife.
But we have 3 of them and our cutlery use has more than halved. Cereal, fruit, soup, cakes and tarts… I could go on…
PS: Thanks for the linky!
Since I’m vegan, I don’t have that problem, throw the meat in a food processor if you want to eat it with a Spork :p
I can’t immediately think of a way to keep the design a simple one-piece while allowing one to cover the sharp teeth of the fork side of the spork if it was stainless steel, when I do find a way, I’ll put it into production immediately, would love to have a stainless steel version of a spork, but not the risk of impaling my wrists when putting pressure on the spoon.
This will make great survival gear if stainless steel. Compact and very useful.
It’ll have to be a slide out knife on the side and extra teeth sliding out turning the fork into a spoon, but manufacturing such a precision piece of stainless steel is going to be extremely expensive and maybe even bulky.
Time to go undust that copy of autocad and experiment a little bit with designs …
@Re@PeR, that’s basically a hobo pocket knife.
LOL, I’m not going to argue with that :p
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