The Tepid Take

The history of the “British Institution” is a fuzzy one. Some of the things we consider most British, of course, hold their roots in faraway lands, such as fish and chips or curry culture. Only once we take things down a notch and start laying claim to more banal inventions such as the sandwich do we find our place; inventions we pioneered, only to lose their legacy as other great powers laid their claims. While the Earl of Sandwich remains a memorable innovator, the humble notion of putting some meat in some bread was preceded by the kebab and superceded by the hamburger. Only in its most banal form does the British sandwich maintain its esteem , in giant factories, at the hands of companies constantly trying to find new ways to keep salad leaves fresh and tomatoes from going soggy.  It is in this banality, tied into an oft unexpected ingenuity, that the British Institution often sits. The telephone box, now a hotspot for free Wi-Fi . Doctor Who, now a harbinger for social change