Steal My Ideas, Please

How about a cereal called Puzzles & Games? The back of the box has a flap that pulls down into a game board. Edible bits inside would be game pieces (like chess or checkers, letters or numbers). Maybe the pieces vary for different editions. Or maybe the box come with a Magic Pen for solving invisible ink puzzles […]

The needed newspaper revolution could learn from the one on TV: Faltering ratings were boosted, temporarily at least, with the surge in reality TV. Basically, such shows were (a) cheap to produce, and (b) based on providing contrived vicarious thrills. How do real people behave? In a way, isn’t that one reason we read newspapers? […]

I know the news people at newspapers will find this amewsing, but I’m serious about making newspapers more unpredictable and fun. As usual, these thoughts may seem like rambling, but there is a vision to my madness, if only to open minds to more possibilities for making content varied and surprising. Why, for example, can’t that billboard […]

Build into each club a device that (a) senses where the flag is, (b) calculates where the clubface is actually aiming, (c) and tells aloud how much the trajectory is off. Super-deluxe version also (d) inertially monitors the swing, (e) tells you why you hooked or sliced, (f) is made of an indestructible material because, well, you know why, […]

Clearly, newspapers are best when readers have lots of time. And newspapers know they need to have content for the five-minute reader. But how about being multi-tasking friendly? What kind of content could you enjoy while you’re watching TV? Eating dinner with the family? Driving? Out on a date? (Patience: Asking dumb questions sometimes leads […]

National or international event: It’s like getting a wrong number on purpose. You sign up with your phone company that you’re willing to place and accept a random call. You call on the event day (best to have it during some miserable month, like February) and get connected to someone somewhere who sees your picture while […]

Simple: People get a mischievous kick of seeing things destroyed. (It’s the Shiva in us, the flipside of creation that balances out the universe.) Like Letterman dropping pumpkins off a roof. Take it to the limit. See who can whack the most heck out of unneeded objects the fastest: That old Webber grill, a carton of chipped […]

This isn’t so much an idea as a testimonial. In high school, I had to give up golf because my knuckles would swell and my hands would hurt. Books and buzz suggested arthritis, or whatever I had, might be related to foods. After reading a book by a Dr. Marshall Mandel (searches aren’t turning up a title that […]

Let it be resolved: If anyone develops a sure-fire lie detector, whether an externally attached device, a drug, a form of hypnosis, a remote mind-reading scan, or a brain implant, no politician may vote to authorize its use on American citizens without first having submitted to such a lie detector and spilled every ounce of truth out of […]

Who says Jack can’t play and learn at the same time? Suppose balls and bats and hockey sticks were covered with vocabulary words. With definitions, of course. Casually, those words would work their ways into minds and conversations. Heck, maybe cover a whole playground with words, names and ideas worth learning. Those in some jokes for […]

There’s a National Smoke-Out Day, where people try not to smoke. How about one for driving cars? Sure it’s impossibly impractical (not enough mass transit to handle the crowds). But just the call for considering the sacrifice might help us all realize how demoralizingly dependent we all are on cars … and foster creative efforts […]

Want a picture-perfect snowman? Sure you could use a real carrot and assorted stones. But suppose you could freeze food-dye colored water to make even better features? Kind of like a Mr. Potato Head kit for snowmen (and women) with dissolvable, re-creatable parts, including lips, mustache and fangs. (Eyeballs can also be dropped in drinks […]

Advertisers want undivided attention, right? Subscribers want cheaper cable. So why not offer discount cable where the catch is some ads are always in view, in strips around the bottom of the screen. Worse, when you use the remote (trying to escape ads), some ads pop up and follow you temporarily. Maybe that second part belongs […]

If YouTube can sell to Google for $1.65 billion, how much would a site of short quality  videos be worth? Imagine a conglomeration of the best bits from Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show, Late Night With David Letterman, and all sorts of sitcoms and cartoons. Not whole shows, just quick clips. Be fun to […]

You know you need to be told what to do. So call 1-900-GRANDMA. Press 1 to be told to get a job. Press 2 for her rap on keeping your pants on. Press 3 to be scolded for using sauce that comes in a jar. You suggest the rest …