Steal My Ideas, Please

Find a need and fill it is the old inventing adage. In an era of the sky’s the limit, maybe it should be find a fantasy and fulfill it. Skip the obvious sex and love stuff. Instead, really imagine the limits of what’s possible. Ask: If you could have any one super power, what would it […]

ABC has remade faces and totally renovated homes. So how about remaking lives? Possibilities: 
Extreme Makeover: Mind Edition, where people get help from life coaches, psychologists, clergy, family and friends. Get Dr. Phil to host this puppy, perhaps. Or Oprah. 
Extreme Makeover: Love Life Edition. This time, instead of focusing on outer beauty, it would be about finding the […]

When it snows, on the news you’ll hear all sorts of warnings: Dress warmly! Look out for icy roads! Bend those knees when shoveling, and don’t do it with a heart problem! Never, though, have I ever heard: Beware of pushing your shovel like a plow because if the blade catches, the handle could suddenly jam, […]

Suppose you’re in a hurry to make your icy sidewalks less dangerous. The stuff is way too hard to chop and shovel. What if you had an “ice rougher”? It wouldn’t remove the ice, it would just rough it up so it wasn’t so slippery. Wouldn’t have to be a separate tool. Option 1: Could be […]

Microwaves heat things, right? So what if you could melt snow and ice with a Microwaving Truck? Maybe add something to the roads, like capsules or metal particles, to make the microwaves more effective. Suppose, in snow country, all vehicles had them. Then, after melting their own driveways, all the cars would help with the melting. Adding particles to […]

If it would cut the cost of your food, would you be cool with eating a steak “branded” with the logo for a beer? Or see an for ad for Wheat Thins stamped on slices of American cheese? Or how about web addresses that show up when you toast a slice a bread? Or how about pop […]

Textbooks can be dry and tedious. But suppose they were written in a livelier fashion by using suspense. Intrigue with foreshadowing titles (”The decision that decided the war”) and keep hooking ‘em with mysteries, puzzles and precarious predicaments. Add in all sorts of amusing and interesting asides (quizzes, quotes, cartoons, even jokes) and kids might enjoy learning more.

Yes, Stephen King is right: His fans like long books. People like suspense, and lengthy books prolong it. But the busy and/or lazy among us might also become fans if half-as-long versions of his golden oldies were available. (Call the line “All the horror in half the time.”) Reader’s Digest once published a series of “condensed books,” but there were […]