Rush-hour gridlock is as much fun as doing taxes. Especially peeving are those drivers who slide into the intersection before there’s room on the other side. “Don’t block the box,” say signs. But drivers do it anyway. Then the cars don’t move because of block-boxers at the next intersection, so everybody’s jammed. Here’s my solution: Sensors Read More …
As the world changes more and more rapidly, why should buildings be so fixed and permanent? I already see ]perfectly good houses and office buildings get torn down to make way for some new and improved and more profitable endeavor. So why not buildings that can easily be dismantled, altered, modified, moved or otherwise rebuilt? Maybe Read More …
The horrible flaw in presidential primaries is this: In a six-person field, one person with a fifth of the vote can look like a winner … and yet not even be among the majority’s Top 2 choices. Besides, what do such “victories” prove in small states? As a result, a marginally popular candidate can ride a wave of media hype to a Read More …
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 Read More …
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 Read More …
Instead of executing killers, you send them to a remote island with no guards and no provisions. Good luck living off the land. Not exactly humane, but cheap. If they whack each other, well, that was meant to be their fate. If they don’t, maybe they learned something and deserve to live. Cruel and unusual punishment? No Read More …
Feel free to use this cartoon if you give credit (by Peter Mucha) and link to stealmyideasplease.com.
Wouldn’t it be nice if politicians could pay a price for distorted campaign ads? Besides tossing them in the clink for deception (the best idea), how about you take away one vote for each time a voter might have seen that lie? One lie broadcast 50 times to 200,000 homes would be a loss of 1 million Read More …
Think about it. On TV, if you see two people who are happy, they’re probably eating, drinking or having sex. Maybe this is part of the obesity epidemic. Who shares the message: Feel lousy? Be patient. Sigh, suffer and cry, if you need to. The rottenness will pass and you’ll feel better. Trust me. It’ll happen. Or, Read More …
Full title idea: Getting in Touch With Your Inner Hippie in an Increasingly Corporate PC World. No, this isn’t a guide to mind-enhancing drugs. It’d be about peace and love and joy, bypassing the all-too-familiar avenues of ambition and fear. If someone writes this, I’ll buy a copy. I could use the advice.
How about a group that’s the antithesis of an anti-defamation alliance? Call it the Thick-Skin Society. Its central belief: We believe in total free speech, so go ahead, take your best shot! We welcome it. This multicultural group would monitor the media, from TV to blogs, and cry howls of protest when some group hasn’t been insulted lately. Read More …
Those Segway Human Transporters have yet to revolutionize the world. Maybe one reason is that the joy of riding them can’t be shared. So make one so two people can ride. Standing. (Not expecting it’d work with one on the handlebars.) Even more economical. Fun on dates. And one person could hold the umbrella. Hey, look there already is Read More …
We’re all busy. Too busy to read. Too busy to exercise. Too busy to cook. Too busy to be smart shoppers, better lovers, better parents, etc., etc., etc. So why not a magazine for us? Everything in it is one page or less, and even that is presented in glanceable graphics form. Lots of briefs Read More …
You know the expression: “Don’t get mad, get even.” Now, while I do agree sometimes a little anger can be good, if it motivates some civil sticking-up for oneself, “getting even” is rarely the route to happiness. For anybody. Thus the idea for the book: Don’t Get Mad, Get Over It. I’d also like to Read More …
First of all, there’s no need for dollar coins at all, if the Treasury adopted my “FREE MONEY!” proposal for putting ads on the dollar bill. But say the powers that be opt for Plan B, switching to dollar coins, to save millions on frequently replacing bills, which wear out more rapidly, then the answer’s Read More …