I've actually got 'em laughing over in GDP! Ask me anything.

[NoSheep]

:evilgrin: :wtf: :hi: :shrug: :hide:

[Floogeldy]

1. You know those skinny, vertical springs in ball point pens?

The ones that let you push the writing tip out, and then bring it back in by pushing the button at the top of the pen?

Who invented that?

B-)

[NoSheep]

2. I'd say THAT is a dayum good question ya got thare Floogeldy!

gimme a sec and I'll research it. Get two or three of my best people on it, and I'll get back to you. :D

[Floogeldy]

5. I'll be glad to pay you for any research expenses you incur . . .

. . . in Corn Nuts. I couldn't pay real money for such a task.

B-)

[hfojvt]

3. I am pretty sure it was Romy and Michelle

either that or Janeane Garofalo

[Floogeldy]

7. I know. I always get them mixed up, too.

:spank:

[hfojvt]

11. maybe it was Art Frye from 3M.

History of the pen is kinda interesting.

"1938: Invention of a ballpoint pen by two Hungarian inventors, Laszlo Biro and George Biro. The brothers both worked on the pen and applied for patents in 1938 and 1940. The new-formed Eterpen Company in Argentina commercialized the Biro pen. The press hailed the success of this writing tool because it could write for a year without refilling.
May 1945: Eversharp Co. teams up with Eberhard-Faber to acquire the exclusive rights to Biro Pens of Argentina. The pen re-branded the “Eversharp CA” which stood for Capillary Action. Released to the press months in advance of public sales.
June, 1945: Less than a month after Eversharp/Eberhard close the deal with Eterpen, Chicago businessman, Milton Reynolds visits Buenos Aires. While in a store, he sees the Biro pen and recognizes the pen’s sales potential. He buys a few pens as samples. Reynolds returns to America and starts the Reynolds International Pen Company, ignoring Eversharp’s patent rights.
October 29, 1945: Reynolds copies the product in four months and sells his product Reynold's Rocket at Gimbel’s department store in New York City. Reynolds’ imitation beats Eversharp to market. Reynolds’ pen is immediately successful: Priced at $12.50, $100,000 worth sold the first day on the market."

Imagine paying $12.50 for a pen in 1945 dollars. :wow:

[NoSheep]

12. Holy Inkwells, Batman!

Retractable? This IS all about the spring, y'know.:+

[NoSheep]

6. Here is a recent pretender to the throne:

http://www.1000inventions.com/detail2.php?id=1031

[Floogeldy]

8. Wow!

That is a great invention! I'm gonna order it so I can click my pen into writable mode with one hand while I'm keeping my other hand on my . . .

. . . uh, never mind. :blush:

[NoSheep]

10. Inventors and entrepreneurs. Not necessarily the "A" students.

:shrug:

[hfojvt]

4. Isn't laughing restricted to the lounge?

There is no room for frivolity in a serious discussion.

[NoSheep]

9. Sometimes, when things get hairy, you can laugh your way out!

imho

[The Magistrate]

13. Humor, Ma'am, Is Often Under-Rated As A Tool In Debate

The point of any serious argument is to get the audience to identify with you, to group themselves with you and exclude your opponent. Humor is an excellent way to foster such identity of feeling, and when turned against an opponent, is devestating, for not only is the object of laughter excluded from the group joined in that shared emotional experience, but what people have once been made to laugh at, they can almost never be persuaded to ever again take seriously. It is unfortunate that rabble-rousers on the right understand this better, at least nowadays, than we on the left do. Allow me to close with a demonstration, old already fifty years ago....

"A liberal is a man who won't take his own side in a fight."