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Sliced Bread

25 Feb, 2024

We are not great fans of sliced white bread, but its popularity has hardly dimmed, even though artisan seeded loaves are now all the rage. So what were the origins of the phrase "the best thing since sliced bread"? Was it a slogan thought up by a baker, or someone working at the fictional ad agency of Sterling Cooper from the TV series "Mad Men"?

Sliced bread was actually first introduced in 1928 by Otto Frederick Rohwedder from Davenport, Iowa, who invented the first loaf-at-a-time bread slicing machine. However, the first record of the idiom is thought to be in 1952, where the famous comedian Red Skelton said in an interview with the Salisbury Times: "Don't worry about television. It's the greatest thing since sliced bread".

So why have I started a weekly newsletter, writing about bread? Maybe I was thinking that an unusual subject line appearing in your inbox, would make you read the news contained here within - I hope so. For what has been announced this week is for walking art probably the best thing since sliced bread. I can probably throw in a few more clichés: walking art is on the rise, there's more dough in walking art, yet all I ask is you use your loaf and join Tuesday's café to get to the crust of the matter - we kneed you there!

Walking Arts and Local Communities (WALC) is a co-funded 4 year project by the EU Creative Europe Cooperation grant, that is going to benefit walking artists across the globe (not just within the EU), that my colleague Geert Vermeire craftily captured in the phrase: "WALC – a new future of walking arts – the largest cultural investment putting walking arts on the map".

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2024-02-28 21:00 · Online
Walking America is a quarterly series of conversations that brings together American writers whose books share common themes. Introduced by Ann de Forest, Christine... Keep reading

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2024-02-27 19:00 · Online
Following the announcement of “WALC – a new future of walking arts – the largest cultural investment putting walking arts on the map” we are delighted to have as Café guests representatives from each of the consortium partners who put together the successful EU funding application for the Walking Arts and Local Communities project. With

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2024-02-27 19:00 · Online
Following the announcement of “WALC – a new future of walking arts – the largest cultural investment putting walking arts on the map” we are delighted to have as Ca... Keep reading
2024-02-28 21:00 · Online
Walking America is a quarterly series of conversations that brings together American writers whose books share common themes. Introduced by Ann de Forest, Christine... Keep reading
2024-02-28 13:00 ·
New monthly online Walkshop format led by Street Wisdom Join Street Wisdom’s Philip Cowell and Vanessa Barlow for a 1 hour online Street Wisdom WalkShop meeting on... Keep reading
2024-03-01 11:00 · Dover's Hill, Weston Subedge, Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, UK
Starting on top of Dover’s Hill we'll walk and draw our way into the landscape. This walk.draw is led by artist and tutor, Ruth Broadbent. Keep reading

From our network

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Day 238 - Canvas Urban and 2.6 km drawing.Canopy and 3.8 km drawing. Keep reading
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After a couple of days of late summer temperatures in the high 30s, I was looking forward to my weekend walk with my dog, in ‘walking temperatures’. If I was going ... Keep reading
Day 237 - Stratified and 2.8 km drawing. Keep reading
Day 236 - Terra Incognita and1.2 km drawing. Keep reading
Global premiere of audio musical about a Pandemic love story. Read my full Broadway World review here Keep reading
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Molly Wagner and Kim Goldsmith talk about the exhibition 'Way Beyond', currently running in Sydney, and hosting work from around 20 Australian walking artists. Keep reading
Day 235 - Whistle and 2.2 km drawing. Keep reading

Stuff we found

The festival is back for a two-week run after it was cancelled in 2023 due to rising costs. Source: Bristol Upfest street art festival returns for 2024 – BBC News... Keep reading
‘Situationists’ believe the physical spaces around us, and how we interact with them, has a significant impact on how we feel. Source: The art of ‘getting lost’: ho... Keep reading
Raquel Potí has become the preeminent face of Rio’s Carnival street parties, and is a fixture on the front pages of Brazilian newspapers and magazines. Source: They... Keep reading

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