Sept 5, 2010: Frozen Margarita Machine
August was National Inventors Month.
Smithsonian.Com, in honor of the event, chose the top 10 inventions from their extensive National Museum of American History’s Collections.
Of course they've got the light bulb, telephone, blah blah blah, but coming in at #10... tah tah tah taaaaaah!
What was that?
French horns.
In 2005, the museum acquired the first-ever frozen margarita machine, invented by Dallas restaurateur Mariano Martinez in 1971. Museum director Brent Glass called the invention a “classic example of the American entrepreneurial spirit.” With the advent of the machine, margaritas became as standard as chips and salsa at Tex-Mex restaurants.
Electric motor
Light bulb
Radio
Telephone
Refrigerator
Automobile
Penicillin
Elevator
Centrifugal pump
Vaccine
Dynamite
Margarita Machine - [COLOR="Red"]FAIL[/COLOR]
How insulting. They couldn't come up with something a little more important? I'm glad they aren't wasting my money buying dumb artifacts.
Oh wait.. They are aren't they!!:mad:
Wow, you're complaining about funding a museum? Just because you don't find it important to history does not mean it isn't or will be. Thousands of years down the road something as unimportant as a margarita machine can give a lot of insight into our current world to the future inhabitants. Also, you have no idea if they bought or were donated the machine, you're just jumping the gun to complain.
Disclaimer: I think they are very important, thank you Senior Martinez
Srsly. Especially as without that machine there'd probably be no such thing as slushies so Spuck would be unemployed because there'd be no 7/11s
I had the idea that the transistor or integrated circuit board should be on the list.
But, if I'm drinking margaritas right then, . . . ;)
Spuck, what would you say about a museum buy an artist work of art ?
Said work consisting in shitting in a tin can, sealing it, sterilizing it and then selling it to the museum for a nice pile of money....
Most of the stuff in the Smithsonian is donated by the owner, or bought from the owner by a private party and donated. Money provide to the Smithsonian by the feds is more than matched by private donations.
After all, Spuck, they've got [STRIKE]your[/STRIKE] Archie Bunker's chair.:p:
According to WikiP, machines to produce frozen beverages were invented in the late 1950s, and Slurpees were branded in 1967, so this isn't even an industry first. Lame.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SlurpeeIs it just me or does that machine look like a drunk, black, bonk-eyed UPS delivery man?
On that list, the Frozen Margarita machine is teh lame.
Oh, and very few things on that list exist without transistors and/or ICs. Just saying.
Is it just me or does that machine look like a drunk, black, bonk-eyed UPS delivery man?
I'm waiting for the shit to fly over this. If
I'd said it, I'd be
covered in shit right now.
:corn:
Oh, and very few things on that list exist without transistors and/or ICs. Just saying.
Only the radio, as far as I can tell.
According to WikiP, machines to produce frozen beverages were invented in the late 1950s, and Slurpees were branded in 1967, so this isn't even an industry first. Lame.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slurpee
From the link at Smithsonian.com...
In 1971, Martinez adapted a soft serve ice cream machine to create the world's first frozen margarita machine for his new Dallas restaurant, Mariano's Mexican Cuisine. With their blenders hard-pressed to produce a consistent mix for the newly popular drink they made from Mariano's father's recipe, his bartenders were in rebellion. Then came inspiration in the form of a Slurpee machine at a 7-Eleven, a machine invented in Dallas in 1960 to make carbonated beverages slushy enough to drink through a straw.
so not only is it an imposter, it's a rip-off.
so not only is it an imposter, it's a rip-off.
Well put!! ^^^ Exactly right. :D
Rip-Off? You do have to wonder when the builder has to put on a plaque trumpeting "World's First" on it.
I don't recall the Wright Brothers putting a similar plaque on their plane, or even Edison, (a gold plated jerk), putting a plaque on his light bulb.
But enough! There's a customer waiting to pay for his Slurpy.
so not only is it an imposter, it's a rip-off.
Then so were the Model-T Ford, the Wright Brother's plane, and your tattoos.
Rip-Off? You do have to wonder when the builder has to put on a plaque trumpeting "World's First" on it.
It's called marketing, developing buzz, making people want to come to his restaurant instead of the eleventeen others in town. He could do that because it was true, but I'm still not sure that was on there before it was retired and donated to the Smithsonian.
that's it! I'm willing my skin to the museum when I die.
The new thing about the Model T Ford wasn't that it was a new invention - the big thing with it was it was made on an assembly line - mass production - instead of hand made, individually.
That was the first (I believe), large scale assembly line production of a complex machine.
It allowed two things, not previously available:
#1 A car that cost much less
#2 The Ford assembly workers to make a much better pay than was possible previously for assembly workers.
It was a pivotal success for the Industrial Revolution.
Yes, and this machine provided the pivotal success in frozen margaritas, and Tex-Mex restaurants.
I thought it was the pecan pralines at the register...
I'm not really interested in the list.
I'm not really interested in the museum.
I'm liking the Dwellars' opinions though :)
I think the Smithsonian only put it on there to get media attention, because otherwise no one cares about yet another "greatest invention" list.
I'm not really sure what smithsonian.com actually is. The Smithsonian Institution, which runs the museums, is si.edu.
Is it "official?"
the links to the individual museums are si.edu, but if you go to smithsonian.com it takes you to the magazine site, smithsonianmag.com, which has on it's banner "smithsonian.com"
confusing, but pretty sure it is official--they've just bought the domain names and redirected people to micro sites
If this guy was the first person smart enough to mix tequila, lime juice and triple sec in a slushy machine, he's Smithsonian caliber in my book.
I thought it was the pecan pralines at the register...
They had them at every cash register, in every restaurant south of DC, going to Florida way back in the 50's.
I'm not really sure what smithsonian.com actually is. The Smithsonian Institution, which runs the museums, is si.edu.
Is it "official?"
Yes, it's the official publication of the Smithsonian.
It's obvious, or at least it should be, looking at the second half of the list, they were having fun. As well as probably trying to stir up interest in actually coming to the museum by pointing out not everything on display is stuffy boring shit. I mean hell, a video game, an electric guitar, a donut machine... c'mon.
today's pop culture is tomorrow's . . . trash
But the Smithsonian records history, and popular culture is a part of our history.
dinna fash y'self, laddie
okay: don't bother yourself; I'm just yanking your chain.
I'm fully aware that the Smithsonian acquire a variety of objects, both historically weighty and important, and . . . not. C3P0 and the ruby red slippers AND the lunar modules. and, apparently, a margarita machine. think they're storing tequila in employees' drawers?
I figured that, just didn't know how. :lol:
that's the translation, though. I must have picked up that phrase from some movie or book or something.