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For Openers
A Better Mousetrap
I f you build a better mousetrap, the world will
beat a path to your door."
Over the years, people have come up with
some odd inventions. Some of these were just
plain silly, but others took off and are commonplace
items today.
Before people started wearing their hats indoors and
for every occasion, it was common cour-
tesy for men to tip their hats to acquain-
tances they passed on the streets. In
1896, a Mr. James Boyle got tired of this
and came up with a hat that tipped
automatically.
If you're into
time or money-
saving proposi-
SY
tions (but not
MANELLO necessarily aids to
Editorial
beauty), there are
hair-cutting
Assistant
devices one can use
at home. In 1951, John
Boax invented a machine to cut hair: It
sucked hair into tiny holes where electric
coils would burn the hair into desired lengths.
It's hard to believe that women once wore clothes that
were extremely full (and did not show ankles, let alone
belly buttons). Bustles were popular in the 1800s and
Elliot Fentner got the idea to use all that space under
the skirt to hide a bustle-attached stool to sit on. In that
way, women could have an instant seat anywhere. They
could just lean back and the stool legs would open to
create a seat.
- In England, a patent has been applied for on a glove
that lets courting couples maintain palm-to-palm con-
tact while holding hands; it has a common palm section,
_
but two separate sets of fingers.
A kooky British cousin has also filed a patent for a
ladder to enable spiders to climb out of a bath. The
device is a thin, flexible latex-rubber strip, which follows
the inner contours of the bath with a suction pad
attached at the top edge. (Anyone who is bathing spi-
ders really needs to get a life!)
Even though I was unsuccessful in applying Liquid
Paper® to my computer screen, it is a valuable tool to
cover paper mistakes. Originally called "mistake out," it
was turned down by IBM. The inventor, Bette Nesmith
Graham, kept selling it from her kitchen-garage until
1979 when the Gillette Corp. bought the product for
$47.5 million plus royalties.
Would you believe that Post-it® Notes were not a
planned product? A lab research scientist at 3M devel-
oped a new adhesive that stuck but
could be easily lifted off; it was
super-weak and no one
knew what to do with it.
Years later, when the man
needed markers to keep
place in his church hym-
nal, he used some adhe-
sive to coat the markers.
The notes are now one of the
most popular office products.
That adorable toy Mr. Potato Head® was "born" in
1952. It originally contained only parts, and parents had
to supply kids with real potatoes for the face-changing
fun. The character has been so much a part of our lives
that in 1987, giving up his pipe, he became the "spoke-
spud" for the American Cancer Society's Great American
Smokeout.
At 40, he received a special award from the President's
Council for Physical Fitness, deciding no longer to be a
"couch potato." He and his missus helped out in 1996
with the League of Women Voters' Get Out the Vote
Campaign — all this, despite the fact that an American
vice president could not spell the character's name.
❑
Chaya Masha Stock and
daughter Itta Henya
Stock, 6, of Oak Park.
Shabbat Candlelighting
"I light one candle for each member of my family, plus one in
honor of the blessing of life that God granted me after a seri-
ous illness 10 years ago. After I say the prayer for lighting the
candles, I add prayers for my family, for the healing of the sick
and injured in klal Yisrael [the Jewish people] and for peace."
Staff photo by Krisra Husa
IV
hat goes around, comes
around. What earlier
practices of Judaism on
Chanukah and Passover
are now common again?
— by Goldfein
pup'
axenbs alp
awns Aq painjald
•asnom atli
ale 10Z1E111 nAOSSEd
apIsano luaulaDETd mopurm ap!su!
u-e woJi panow uaaq ge-q -q-emnu-etp
Dtp ui .civRnuvcp -e pip mou
s! TiEJOLIQUI Liminue-qDatJZ :IWASITV
nano
Quotables
"We need to organize the unique
energy hidden in Russian Jewry."
— Israeli Deputy Absorption Minister
Yuli Edelstein, a former Soviet dissident,
during the Moscow portion of the World
Congress of Russian Jewry, as quoted by
JTA.
"There is so much more coverage
than there was of the 1967 or the
1973 war. That tends to generate
complaints from those who already
have an existing bias one way or
another ... I think most of [the com-
plaining] is nonsense, predictable,
politicized opinion-mongering."
— John Schidlovsky, director of the Pew
International Journalism Program
about the perceived imbalance in
Mideast daily newspaper coverage, as
quoted in the July August issue of the
`American Journalism Review"
A rabbi said, "Though you're in pain,
It's unwise to always complain.
I think, Mrs. Schechter,
You'll find a gelechter
Is heard viter vee a gevain."*
Candlelighting
Candlelighting
Friday, July 26: 8:41 p.m.
© 2002
Yiddish Limericks
— Yehudis Brea, Oak Park
Sponsored by Lubavitch Women's Organization.To submit
a candlelighting message or to receive complimentary can-
dlesticks and information on Shabbat cancilelighting, call
Miriam Amzalak of Oak Park at (248) 967-5056 or e-
mail: amzalak@juno.com
tiV46.1 -)'cha
Don't Know
-
Friday, Aug. 2: 8:33 p.m.
Shabbat Ends
Shabbat Ends
Saturday, July 27: 9:48 p.m.
Saturday, Aug. 3: 9:39 p.m.
— Martha Jo Fleischmann
* laughter is heard farther than weep-
ing
.ZU
7/26
2002