Thanks to all who contributed to the list of unsplashy (but useful) inventions. See your list below.
Not just drinking straws…bendy straws. Caregiving would be unimaginably more difficult without bendy straws. (There was a time, long gone, when you invent something, you didn’t plaster your name all over it.) So let us give long overdue thanks to Ms. Bendy.
Post-It Notes, rubber car mats, bug spray
Deck of cards, refrigerators, indoor plumbing (oops! Last one is kinda splashy!).
Ballpoint pen. Toilet paper
Bubble wrap, Velcro, Q-tips
Bobby pins, clothes pins, safety pins.
Air conditioning, chocolate, music
Barcodes and QR codes
Guitar capos, fingerpicks, chromatic tuners
Arrowheads, field glasses, books (though they can be kinda splashy depended on their content!!
Hearing aids, summer camps (no such thing in other countries), flip-top can openers (Alcoa invention, Pittsburgh
Fingernail clippers, umbrellas, solar panels
Well seasoned cast-iron pan. Vintage and chipped cat food bowl. Toaster.
Many of mine involve expletives. I'll refrain from those. One that's out there already is "num-yums" for dog treats. Out door plumbing--set yourself free--but how do you flush this dang thing?; hula hoops--what are they for anyway? Thing-a-nabobs that once had their day.
Unsplashy, could do without: Styrofoam, plastic cups & family, and sevin dust. Unsplashy, shoutouts: diapers, toothbrushes (teethbrushes?!), and antiseptic liquids/gels, like hydrogen peroxide (w/bandaid, of course!) P.S. In the heat of summer, let's not forget: Ice cream!! 😋😉
And the winner is . . .
My parents had a Sunday School teacher who was engaged for nine years before he married. He told his fiancée, I will marry you when I make my first million as an inventor. She was willing to wait. It took him nine years. Then they got married, committed Christians both of them, they more than tithed to a variety of organizations and started a foundation to help people afford college. I was one of the fortunate recipients of funds from their scholarship foundation. The invention that made him a multimillionaire, that went beyond his original metal design to plastic, was a metal pour spout for paperboard packaging. Whenever I used a container to refill a salt shaker, dishwashing soap, rice, or other dry goods, I would think of Mr. and Mrs. Jelinek. He went on to create many other useful inventions, most small items. Now, even his great-grandchildren don't have to work, but they do, and they continue to have faith and more than tithe. I don't know if any of them are also inventors.
...Everyone