Odd Idea=Funny Money

For fun it's a wonderful toy

W/E Wednesday has reared it's head yet again and today I'll touch on the topic of odd ideas that made certain people a dump-load of moo-la-la.  I'm presenting them in the order of "odd but good" descending down to "And why did people waste their money?", at least in my opinion.  As you can probably guess, the "good" idea was the Slinky.  The toy got it's start when naval engineer Richard James dropped a tension spring he was working with and had a light bulb moment when it did the slink-thing.  What a million dollar accident!  I suppose  I should start watching my clumsy moments more

It's a cult!

often but I'm sure all I'll end up with is analyzing another mess.

Next on the agenda is your favorite and mine, the Snuggie. How did it's maker, Scott Boilen, devise such a product?  My guess is he watched someone put their robe on backward to keep off the chill and that spawned the Blankie seed in his mind. And from that seed grew the Blankie Empire, which I'm sure has eclipsed the Chia Pet in the "Cheesy Christmas Gift" category.

Oh, why?

Last as it should be is a fad blast from the past, the Pet Rock.  Gary Dahl, a former advertising executive (figures) came up with the"ingenious" idea to throw a rock on a wad of straw in a box and sell it as a "hassle-free" pet. Well, he did make half an effort and included a "pet training manual".  They sold for $3.95 with a profit of about $3 each and racked up $15 million for Dahl in the first 6 months and that's in "back in the day" money. It's a good thing for Gary that it made fast money because this fad didn't last long and I'm happy to say that I never had one. Well, except for the wild ones I wrangled from the backyard or the beach.

So keep a lookout for that odd idea that might make you a millionaire...or perhaps you'll just end up finding messes like I do :)