So back in the French and Indian War, this guy named Jonathan Trumbull Sr. gets rich by selling supplies to the British army — food, blankets, all that. War’s over, he’s loaded, and he ends up becoming Governor of Connecticut.
Trumbull’s son, John Trumbull, grows up fancy and decides he’s gonna be an artist. So with his dad’s cash and connections, he starts the American Academy of the Fine Arts — an exclusive art school that only teaches the "proper" way to paint.
Enter Samuel Morse — yeah, the Morse Code guy — who’s also a painter. Morse gets sick of Trumbull’s snobby school and breaks off to form his own rebel art school called the National Academy of Design.
Fast-forward a few decades, and that school also gets stuck-up. So artists break off again and create the Art Students League of New York, a place for more experimental and practical art.
One of those students, Russel Wright, skips traditional art altogether and goes into industrial design — stuff like dishes, furniture, and home goods. He’s all about sleek, modern designs and invents stackable dinnerware to save space.
Then the Homer Laughlin China Company copies Wright’s stackable mug design — but with this awful little indent on the bottom. That indent? Perfect for holding a puddle of water after a dishwasher cycle.
So now, every time I run my dishwasher, those stupid mugs dump water all over my silverware in the lower rack. Which is why — every single time — I have to empty the bottom rack first.
