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The 50 Year History of Play-Doh
tanagra writes "50 years ago U.S. Patent No. 3,167,440 was granted to Noah McVicker and Joseph McVicker for a "plastic modeling composition", (which was originally intended to be a wallpaper cleaner) now called Play-Doh. Little did they know that they had created the substance of childhood memories as well as many a childhood meal, unfortunately. Play-Doh persists as one of the most well known and popular children's "toys". As you attempt to clean your children's Play-Doh out of the carpet, the car, and the bathtub; take a look back with us at how it all got started."
D'OH!
...home-made imitation playdoh?
Mom did.
It tasted salty.
You know, if that stuff has really been around that long, the least they could do now is make it taste better.
I'll stick with paste anyday.
khasim (12/9/06): In a blind taste test, more people preferred Coke over the Pepsi that I had previously pissed in.
1. Create Wallpaper Cleaner 2. ??? 3. Profit!
No, Mr. Green. Communism is just a red herring.
Sure, they may not have changed it much in 50 years, but just you wait. For the 50th anniversary they'll probably have new flavors: "Original", Barbeque, Zesty. Mmmmm.... Play'doh. :)
(I have never eaten Play'doh. Play'doh is a registered trademark of Hasbro, the same large corporation that rules over D&D. This speculation written to excite the imaginations of Slashdot users as well as give me some Karma points for being funny.)
I had a friend in college once pay me back with 10 cans of playdough. The only problem is that everyone wanted to play with my playdough. Damn roomates.
Let's pretend this patent just appeared on the Slasdot front page. Is it valid?
Depends on whether you consider substituting Penzoil for schmaltz in your matzo balls a nonobvious idea.
All I can say is, it never would have occured to me.
KFG
I'm sick and tired of all those slashdot articles that extol the virtues of Legos in a child's intellectual development, and how it trained generations of engineers, architects and programmers to think logically, discretely, and modularly.
Finally, we give praise to the medium that created all of us Liberal Arts majors: Play-Doh. Folks, it doesn't get any fuzzier than this stuff. There is no formula, design, or strategy. Anything you make can be anything you want; a bird is a blob is a bunny. Anything goes -- nobody can say you are wrong. Take your masterpiece and pinch it here and there and its totally different. What an exercise in hermeneutical phenomology! It's everything yet nothing at once! Take all the colors, mix them together, and you get a wonderful, muddied brown. Who can argue with that?
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
No, actually he was eating flour, water, and salt.
You've obviously never been to a Jewish NASCAR tailgating party.
The opinions stated herein do not necessarily represent those of anybody at all. Deal with it.
...snakes and twigs'n'berries.
Or perhaps 'The PIMP' (Plastic Immersive Modeling Product)
Or "PDNC" (Play Doh's Not Clay)
Clearly they needed someone like RMS back in the 50s to help them out.
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
Just a year ago (I'm 27 now), I went out and bought PlayDoh for just the smell. I keep it at work and whenever I get stressed out, I pull out a can and sniff. The coworkers think I'm a bit odd, but what's new?
Isn't that smell so very distinctive and reminiscant of childhood. I love that stuff! As a bonus, kneading it can be relaxing too.
Mmmmmmm.... fingernail crud bread... delicious.
I prefer plastique.
--Lefty
You can also use it to take Mary Worth's smug sense of self-satisfaction down a peg ;)