During the airing of a Cash Cab episode several years ago, host Ben Bailey asked the question:  "What iconic hot cocoa brand was invented by an American of Sicilian descent?" or something close to that effect.  The answer, of course, was Swiss Miss.  For the other folks in the room's benefit, I chimed in with "And Uncle Chuck was that inventor".   "Uncle Chuck" was Charles Sanna, inventor extraordinaire, of Madison, Wisconsin.  Unfortunately, the world...

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With all the pots and pans I've scrubbed over the decades and with all the S.O.S pads that graced the soapdish over our kitchen sink for years, I never knew - but wondered ... when it occured to me to wonder about it - what the S.O.S stood for or the origin of the name for those scruffy little pads. Until today.  But first ... the back story. In San Francisco, in 1917, a salesman...

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