There is nothing like a good obituary; great ones are hard to come by.

Today (Tuesday), we have one. Daniel Thompson died at aged 94 in Rancho Mirage, California. Mr. Thompson invented the bagel machine allowing its mass production. As the obit makes clear this loss for the Jewish community of a smallish, dense, chewy, delicious, round of dough with a circle in the middle (signifying the circle of life) has been a boon for the rest of us. The obit celebrates both the loss of the real thing and the blessing of the not-so-great replacement. (Now available in our neighborhood at Thai Bagels.)

In a bagel hole summary: "Mr. Thompson’s machine proved to be a mirror of midcentury American history. For bound up in the story of its introduction is the story of Jewish assimilation, gastronomic homogenization, the decline of trade unionism, the rise of franchise retailing and the perennial tension between tradition and innovation."

Mr. Thompson's father was a bagel maker emigrated from England to Canada to the U.S. Mr. Thompson's machine was an improvment on one his father had devised that was unsuccessful (more 20th century history). Young Mr. Thompson also invented the wheeled, collapsible ping pong table said to have graced the basements of mid-century homes. What a guy.

Unfortunately no mention of bialys. But read Margalit Fox's brilliant obit.