Some of the best inventions were accidental. Consider Popsicles. In 1905, in Oakland, California, eleven-year-old Frank Epperson absent-mindedly left a powdered soda mixture with a stirrer in a glass outside during a freezing night. The next morning he found what would be the first Popsicle. Closer to Texas, nachos were a rush job by Victory Club maître d’hôtel Ignacio Anaya—in 1940 he had last-minute customers at the Piedras Negras, Mexico, restaurant where he worked. The cooks were gone, but Anaya was resourceful. He put together fried tortilla wedges individually topped with melted Colby cheese and a pickled jalapeño slice for his unexpected diners, Army wives from the military base in Eagle Pass, across the border. The platter—Nacho’s special—was christened after the diminutive for Anaya’s first…