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I know. You’ve waited all year, and it’s finally here—November 3, National Sandwich Day! So here’s a shout out to a man who had the meats way before Arby’s did.

In 1762, John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich, ordered beef between two slices of bread so he could eat and gamble at the same time. In a time when cutlery was all the rage, the Earl’s practice of eating with his fingers raised more than a few eyebrows. Evidently, no one had a problem with his gambling so obsessively that he couldn’t take a break for a meal now and then. No, it was his hands-on approach to eating that so shocked a nation—until they tried it.

What does this have to do with books, you might ask? Well, later that year, English author, Edward Gibbons, observed two men eating cold meat between bread slices in a small cafe called the Cocoa Tree. He was so impressed by the sight that he wrote about it, thus providing the first written record of the term sandwich.

So next time you chow down on a sandwich, thank an author.