SPRING AND SLINKYS

Well, fine. It's spring. Spring semester, as well, during which I worked on a group project to create a website about--of all things--Slinkys. Yes, you know--who walks the stair without a care--THAT Slinky. And since the Slinky is a spring, I'm reminded...

The Slinky was invented in 1945 by a guy who dropped a spring he was using to invent some stability for ship instruments while at sea. As if that's not a far enough stretch (pun fully intended!), the guy had some kind of identity crisis of some sort during his life, spun out of orbit and into a religious cult, leaving his wife and family and the Slinky business. His wife kept it up, ran the shop, and reaped the benefits. I don't know if ship instruments are stable to this day, but I doubt that the Slinky is allowed on ocean voyages. Think of all those fools who'd be following the Slinky over the edge and into the drink!!

Perhaps I would have had more fun with this project had I been, say, 12; but being that I'm a REALLY non-traditional student, this was a study in rhetoric that I might have preferred to perform on something a bit more worldy...like, say, the pogo stick. At least you can ride that. What does a Slinky do? Just tumbles around.

But just think! Would anyone have invented those headbands with the springs and styrofoam balls on them if it weren't for the Slinky? How about those glasses with the springs and the eyeballs attached? The Slinky has obviously been a catalyst for imaginative applications...in fact, and seriously, soldiers in Vietnam used the slinky as antennae for field radios. And you can slip a Slinky over the bird feeder pole as a way for squirrels to broaden THEIR imaginations, and figure out a way to use it as a ladder. Personally, I like to just take mine to meetings and annoy people by "slinking" it back and forth in my hands.

Like that wise old sage (or some such herb) said once, "Men are like Slinkys; not much good for anything, but a lot of fun to watch tumble down the stairs now and then." (Sorry, but this is not an equal opportunity blog, and I did NOT create the joke in the first place.)