Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 7, 1995 TAG: 9506070042
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
If gas masks filled with activated carbon could protect soldiers during Desert Storm altercations, surely a cushion filter can keep peace at home or in the office. Frank Lathrop thought so and came up with the idea for the Toot Trapper.
Promotional materials about the Toot Trapper suggest:
"Take the Toot Out of Fruit."
"Saves marriages, friendships, maybe even lives."
"This is not a hoax - It really works!" notes a letter from the manufacturer. The Trapper is billed by UltraTech Products Inc. as the answer to the olfactory discomfort brought on by someone's intestinal gas.
This sensitive topic is perhaps not what you'd expect in a daily newspaper, but it is an example of how necessity sparked creativity. And, it's a good opening for a sampling of nontraditional items in the marketplace.
Lathrop, a Houston inventor, is diabetic, which he said causes him to produce an excessive amount of gas. Things got so unattractively odoriferous at his office that employees requested he build himself a separate room in the back of the plant.
Now, as long as Lathrop is on his cushion, he can have a slip, and the workers don't complain, states the company literature.
A vegetarian dentist has found the product equally effective, says the promotional material. If the dentist stays astride his cushion, he can avoid offending patients or having to excuse himself.
Someday, UltraTech hopes you will tune in to QVC or Home Shopping and be able to order a Toot cushion, but in the meantime it's available through the mail for $39.95, plus shipping and handling. If you want to know more about the product, call UltraTech's Anti-Gas Hotline, (800) 316-8668.
Are you smiling?
Almost nothing can beat the Toot for originality, but Big Head required some amount of unorthodox thought. Big Head is a steering-wheel cap that also can be worn by the driver as a sun hat.
The cap's oversized bill shades the driver-side dash and instrument panel to block UV rays and prevent cracking and fading, and it could provide equal protection for prominent chests.
Obviously this is the second-generation auto sunshade, and can be found in some of the same places, such as Wal-Mart and automotive departments or stores. The price is generally $9.95. If you want to know more about this product, call (800) 337-4233.
Driven to drink by now? Try this nonalcoholic sip.
John Maguire III of Myrtle Beach, S.C., offers this recipe of a brain-nutrient drink to replace alcohol as a "social drink."
Add 2 to 6 tablespoons of lecithin granules and a small amount of vinegar to a favorite beverage and sip. Lecithin granules are sold at health food stores.
The drink gives you chemicals used by the brain to make its memory chemicals, Maguire writes.
"By using brain nutrient drinks, we could stop drunk driving, end fetal alcohol syndrome and raise the intelligence of the country. Create the best, healthiest, happiest, most intelligent people in the world," said Maguire, who closed his letter with "Hooray!"
I have no idea who Maguire is, nor did he answer his telephone at Myrtle Beach. I am intrigued, however, with the idea of getting him and Toot-maker Lathrop together.
Final attention today goes to Avon Products Inc., which has been around since 1886, or 34 years before women got the vote.
After years of watching customers buy its Skin-So-Soft bath oil to use as insect repellent for humans and dogs, Avon last year began producing Skin-So-Soft Moisturizing SuncarePlus.
Avon makes no insect repellent claims for its bath oil, but Suncare Plus is billed as an effective repellent for mosquitoes, chiggers, fleas, ticks and black flies. It is promoted as a substitute for the chemical compound known as DEET, but has none of the side effects of DEET, the company said.
The new lotion includes a waterproof SPF 15 sunscreen and is promoted as gentle enough for any age person to use. Its cost is $9.99 for a 4-ounce tube.
Quick: Who was the first "Avon Lady?"
Answer: Mrs. P.F.E. Albee, Winchester, N.H.
Kelly can be reached at (703) 981-3393, or by writing P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke, 24010-2491, or through electronic message to sandrakinfi.net.
by CNB