A Secret Service Story
Plus: Building A Better Blade, and Other Ideas
I have no theme for this edition, so here’s a hodgepodge of unrelated things.
A True Story About The Secret Service
One day during the Obama administration, I was in a Starbucks a few blocks from the Capitol. I had gotten my coffee already, and I was standing at the kiosk by the entrance, adding my cream and sugar. All of a sudden, two members of the Secret Service entered.
I don’t remember how I knew they were Secret Service, but I could tell. Maybe they had jackets or badges that said Secret Service. Or maybe they had those little coiled earpieces like they do in the movies. But they were lingering at the entrance, looking around the room, scoping the place out.
Since I was standing right there next to them, I said, “Wow, is President Obama coming here?”
“No,” one of them answered, deadpan.
“Biden?”
“No.”
“So then what is the Secret Service doing here?”
And in the same deadpan manner, they answered, “Getting coffee.”
A Rags to Razors Story
It’s been a while since I’ve shared one of my inventor profiles, so let me tell you about Todd Greene, the 29th inventor I profiled for my series.
One thing I learned in interviewing so many inventors is that the ones who invent while working for big corporations seem to have a higher likelihood of success with their products than the entrepreneurs trying to make it on their own. But Todd was an exception. He went from selling his product out of a booth on Venice Beach to building a successful company.
Todd‘s invention was a razor blade specifically designed for shaving your head. It had a little ring you slip your finger into, and wheels to roll the blade over your head like a little car as you shave. He called it the HeadBlade.
Enough people loved the HeadBlade that he built a whole business around it selling different styles and accessories to the tune of $10 million in sales per year.
In 2005, the HeadBlade became part of the permanent Architecture and Design collection in the Museum of Modern Art. See if you can find it in this exhibit of “humble masterpieces”:
Here’s a video I made about Todd and his invention:
One thing we didn’t talk about in Todd’s video was his previous career as an artist for Sierra Online, where he worked on lip-sync animation for the King's Quest series, or his time as a Disney Imagineer. But I think you can see hints of that artistic background in his fun design for a razor.
Sadly, Todd died of cancer in 2020. I’m getting to a point where too many of my inventor stories end in the inventor’s death. Maybe I need to find more inventors.
Remaindered Ideas
Back when Ironic Sans was a blog where I had a whole category for “idea” posts, I kept a running list of ideas that might turn into articles. I just found my list, and there are still a lot of things that never got turned into blog posts. I’m going to dump a bunch of them here. It’s possible I may have shared some of these elsewhere already but I don’t think so.
So here are a handful of ideas I haven’t yet done anything with yet:
Someone should make a 3D print of a 3D scan of a 3D print of a 3D scan of an object, and so on, to see how much it changes with each generation.
There should be sand castle molds in the shape of structures found on Tatooine in the Star Wars movies. Then the whole beach becomes a desert planet playset.
How much could you fill a periodic table with pop-culture elements? Like, you’d have the Oxygen Network, Freddy Mercury, Iron Man, Tin Tin, etc. Unfortunately, I think it would still be mostly empty.
“Nerdrunner” — I have no idea what this note meant, but I’m sure I had something in mind.
What if there were power generators built into stadium seats, generating a little bit of power every time people sit or stand? Could enough power be generated to make the expense worthwhile?
Someone should make a lamp out of aa rock or pahoehoe. Then it would be a literal lava lamp.
A totally smooth car without windshield wipers wouldn’t have any place for cops to stick a ticket.
And while it’s a little late for Hanukkah, here’s one that’s holiday-related:
What do you get the person who has everything for Hanukkah? A series of 8 menorahs, each with the exact amount of candles for each night.
Okay, I think that’s it for now. Some of the other ideas on the list might actually make for good newsletter topics one day, so I don’t want to give away them all.
I really want those Tatooine sand castle molds.
I’ll be on vacation when the next newsletter would otherwise go out, so this is probably the last edition for 2021. This is the fiftieth issue, which seems like a good place to pause. Have a safe and happy holiday, and I’ll see you in the new year.
And be sure to get your booster shot if you haven’t already!
See you next time.
David