Take the i-Pod Shuffle idea and offer a stream of brain teasers and trivia. The pitch: Entertaining way to sharper your brain. Might be a Jeopardy! version. Or stuff from almanacs and encyclopedias. Games Magazine. Samples from various popular games, such as Scrabble. Tests with word problems from math books. Tricky lateral thinking problems from Read More …
1. It’s where you think you left it: Look more thoroughly. Repeat three times. Have someone else look, too. (One time I found a friend’s $5,000 check tucked under the flap of a bill.) 2. It fell. Look anywhere below. It’s in the drawer which was open, but then got closed. It hit the floor and Read More …
Take an old book and add some steamier scenes. Or wilder adventures. Add trouble of a greater order of magnitude. Same story, more action, less angst. Scarlet Letter: Hester Prynne whips out an uzi and shows those prudes a thing or two. They once had Classic Comics (maybe they still do?), visually retellings of famous stories. These Read More …
A funny newspaper column or book would be a collection of opinions by kids about adult likes and dislikes. Kids try pate. Cigarettes. Wine. The evening news. C-Span. Shakespeare. Caviar. Business suits. The Wall Street Journal. Brie. Slim-Fast. Might make a very “emperor’s new clothes” kind of point: Maybe adults don’t really some this boring, Read More …
Two sides have long histories of hatred? Let the aggressions out in some kind of sporting event. Slug it out in a boxing match. Play rough-and-tumble rugby. Fencing. Wrestling. Paintball. Prime minister vs. prime minister in a fierce game of foosball. Not saying this is a cure for war, but it could defuse some of the unreasonable Read More …
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 Read More …
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 Read More …
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, Read More …
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 Read More …
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 Read More …
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 Read More …
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 Read More …
As I mentioned before, it’d be great to revive Rocky and Bullwinkle in a series of novels. Loony spy adventures … deadpan humor … chapters with punny titles … somebody sign me up, please! But he’s a more up-to-date idea, blog these new adventures, featuring a new installment every day. Perhaps written as a diary by Rocky or Bullwinkle or Read More …
There’s a cocky title. As if an infinitesmal creature like me could know. But here’s my thought: The universe could never have been Nothing. Why? The law of opposites. You can’t have light without dark, hot without cold, good without evil. So can’t have Nothing without Something. Poof! And that’s how the universe was born. Read More …