Accidental Genius

Dad and I had three memorable things we did often together in my youth. #1) we would stop at a little quick shop in my hometown called "Toot N Tell." It was called that because you drove up, tooted your horn, and you would tell them what you wanted. The bag we would take home would usually consist of a pack of Camels and about fifty pieces of bubble gum; the old man liked to see how many pieces of gum I could fit in my mouth at one time. By the way my personal best at age ten was fourteen pieces. This exercise was a lot of fun for me and the old man, but I don't think it thrilled either mom or our family dentist. #2) we would fish and hunt together although I much preferred hunting as opposed to fishing as mosquitos are highly overrated. And #3) we would watch westerns together. The Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns in particular made quite an impression on me and they obviously did dad as well because not long after the first one aired, I noticed a poncho hanging in dad's closet. He also quickly switched over to cigars in pretty short order. The downside is it wasn't the best-looking fashion choice no matter what era we were in, but the upside is I never again saw his leisure suit or platform shoes. Buying clothing off the rack during any era is not really advisable. This year's fashion choice is a decade from now's kitschy Halloween costume. Grandma was always wowed by Liberace and his choice of costumes, but the old girl was convinced he never got married because he was (and I quote) "always on the road."

Speaking of breaking with tradition I recently listened to a radio show that was interviewing Clint Eastwood about his westerns. Does anyone know just how old Clint these days is? For sure he may be one day older than dirt. During the interview they asked him about his signature western squint. He told the interviewer that the squint happened naturally because of the combination of the bright camera lights and the hot Italian sun. Isn't it interesting that something we all figured was purposeful and thought about beforehand was nothing more than a happy accident? I refer to this accidental genius.

How many times in this life are we credited for being brilliant when we are anything but? I had a bread pudding recipe handed down to me from my granny. She was known to cook hers the old-fashioned way over hot coals in a cast iron Dutch oven like an old cowpoke. I'll be the first one to concede that it takes talent to cook in that fashion. It should also be pointed out that anything with that much sugar content when put in contact with direct heat is prone to scorch. At any rate, after I got a little older and my creative juices kicked in, I started to change the recipe to fit my tastes and essentially make it my own. She would have wanted it that way. I started soaking the raisins overnight in Jack Daniels and swapped the day-old bread for croissants. I figure the top of the bread would become crispy from the heat of the oven and the bottom would remain soft by absorbing the sweet eggy goodness, my hunch was right. In fact, every time I ate it my tongue came out and slapped me on the forehead. And then, on a dare I entered the recipe in a contest put on by Emeril Live and I'll be dogged if it didn't win first prize. I enter cooking contests all the time, but it was the first time I ever won anything. Accidental genius!

The next time you are setting at the breakfast table reading the back of the Kellogg's box consider this fact. In the late 19th century Dr. Harvey Kellogg started developing a crispy corn flake he was sure would help his patients who suffered from intestinal problems. This was obviously during the era where most food contained white flour but before the castor oil craze of the fifties. At one point a long sheet of this corn concoction had fermented but instead of throwing it out he cooked it all the way through which dried it out and made it a perfect crunchy snack that could be enjoyed with cold milk. Accidental genius. I would however be remiss if I didn't point out that after all of these years while hanging out on the front of the cereal box that Captain Crunch has never been promoted to Major. Also, interestingly his eyebrows reside on his hat, but that's a whole different blog entry.

Post-It-Notes too were invented by accident. In 1968 a man named Spencer Silver was working for the 3M company and invented a semi-strong adhesive. He noted that even though the adhesive worked fairly well it just didn't have staying power, it also peeled easily. In 1970 a friend of his was looking for an adhesive that would work well to mark bookmark hymnal books but wouldn't tear the pages. Right at that moment the Post-It-Note was born. So, the next time you find yourself making a mistake ask yourself if it could help mankind. The only invention that can top Post-It-Notes is Scotch Tape.