VELOURS AND CROCHET

“The world of reality has its limits. The world of imagination is boundless.” Rousseau said it, and of course imagination leads to ingenuity, and ingenuity is used to solve problems.

For instance, a caveman stands at the shore staring at the river. His imaginative wife comes out of the cave with a stick. She thrusts it into his hand and says, “Don’t just stand there. Catch dinner,” and Fishing was conceived.

Over the centuries humankind has been most inventive while trying to solve both major and minor mysteries of life. There is a reason that the name of the robotic helicopter operating on Mars (as part of NASA’S 2020 mission) is named Ingenuity. All of us are confronted with enigmas that call for ingenuity.

Last week I had a battle with a stubborn cap on top of a bottle of Olive Oil. It simply refused to come off. I thought, “What the heck! It’s Olive Oil. Olive Oil is oil. It’s slippery. I’ve used it to prevent a door hinge from squeaking.” However, there was a plastic seal over the cap. It had to be removed first. My scissors were too big, and my knife was too dull. Finally I settled on a safety pin and my teeth. That worked, but the cap still wouldn’t turn. I tried to loosen the edges with the knife. Then I hit the edges with the knife, and then I  tried the guaranteed-to-open-anything rubber cloth  Still the cap would not budge. Finally, I held the cap under hot running water in the kitchen sink. The cap popped off and half of the oil escaped down the drain. Some challenges do take more than ingenuity, and sometimes profanity and patience go a long way.

Einstein said, “You cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it.” Fannie Blumenfeld, my dear mother-in-law advised,”When cooking if you don’t  have an ingredient—improvise.” In 1876, Virgil Gates patented his “Mustache Shield” to keep the mustache out of the way when drinking or eating. Not one woman purchased his invention, and it failed. Recently, someone invented grass flip-flops that gave you the sensation of walking on grass—only the grass is in the flip-flops. More flop than flip with that invention.

In 1968, Dr. Spencer Silver was disappointed when instead of developing a strong quick adhesive for 3M he discovered a weak adhesive that never seemed to dry.  His associate went to church, and became frustrated when his bookmark kept falling out of his hymnal. So, he put the adhesive to the back of a piece of paper and the Post-It-Note was born.

 Also, when you use velcro think of a dog in Switzerland who got lots of burrs in his coat. Taking them off of his pup was frustrating, but when Georges de Mestral  put them under his microscope he discovered tiny hooks covering the burr. Today, velcro can even be found on the Space Shuttle.

Steven Wright asks, “If your car could travel at the speed of light, would the headlights work?”

Right now scientists are tackling the conundrum of “faster than the speed of sound” with super- sonic jets. Years ago these jets were tried, but when flights went over populated areas they were banned, because  sonic BOOMS broke grandma’s china. That put the kibosh on getting to New York from LA in 3 hours.

Now in conjunction with independent companies, NASA is testing flying the X-59 sonic jetliner in 2022. The target for commercial flight is 2035 if the BOOM can be turned into thumps. Depending on the thumps maybe the ban will be lifted. However, I can attest that thumps overhead can be very unpleasant, because for a short time my upstairs neighbor used a vibrating therapy thumping chair.

United Airlines is already lined up for super-sonic jets that can get you from NY to London in 3 1/2 hours.  Hopefully with lots of ingenuity even the seemingly improbable will become possible.

In the meantime, I can’t wait 13 years to open this jar of marmalade. Time for hot water— Doctor— and plenty of it.

Esther Blumenfeld