What was the best thing before sliced bread?

Apparently, the phrase comes from a 1930s marketing campaign for Wonder Bread. So, I’m guessing people didn’t use the phrase “the best thing since…” before the ads.

if the phrase is from the 1930’s maybe a possible precursor was ‘best thing since horseless carriages”?

The llama – they’re a source of wool, meat, and other stuff, and they’re good for transporting things. Plus the name is cool. Llama. Is it the first L that’s silent, or the second one?

Same with Aardvarks – Minus the good wool, meat, and other stuff. If I was the one responsible for creating the English language: A) It would be REALLY screwed up, and B) I would have gone with Ahrdvark. But then again, that is most likley why they appointed Webster to come up with new words. How did Webster get that gig anyway? And who is Webster?

A pocket on a shirt.

Regular bread?

Eli Whitney’s cotton gin

Maybe whole bread?

Guns. for sure.

Perforated bread?

I believe the original best thing was fire.

“The best thing since the agricultural revolution” has a nice ring to it. So does “The best thing since bronze.” Although bronze probably wasn’t as good as steel. Hmm, I feel like this is turning into a Jared Diamond book.

@finkelitis: I really like the idea of perforated bread.

Antiseptics (Joseph Lister, 1867).

Iron – the best thing since bronze.

How about—man learning how to make fire?

(Foolaholic and I have the same response, I know).

THE WHEEL!!!! How about the wheel. The wheel was post-fire and yet nobody has said anything about it. Granted, you can’t typically eat a wheel, but if the wheel was made of loaves of bread (non-sliced, of course)?????

But really – THE WHEEL!!!! (maybe.)
:)

The best thing since walking erect?

Since walking erect? Easy. Being born? Crawling? :)

Basing my answer off of sferik’s and having it be as temporally close to sliced bread as possible, I would have to answer the harnessing of alternating current.

Beer. I mean sure, the wheel was a great invention, but it doesn’t go nearly as well with Pizza.

guttenburg’s printing press created essentially the universal spread of free information, I think that is the best invention of times before wonder bread’s aforementioned slogan hit the mainstream.

a knife

clean fresh water