Some years ago the late, great columnist Mike Royko suggested uses for a small dog: “Spray it with Endust and use it to clean under the beds” and “Tie it to a stick and use it to wash windows.” He also wrote that he “wouldn’t mind owning a little dog that looked like a blond hairpiece, if it could be taught to sit quietly on my head (giving me) both a pet and a fine head of hair.”
Now along comes a new book into which Royko’s notions would seamlessly fit.
This is a book that suggests dressing your babies in outfits that will enable them to help you with housework.
As the book’s authors write: “Just dress your young one in Baby Mops and set him or her down on any hardwood or tile floor that needs cleaning. You may at first need to get things started by calling to the infant from across the room, but pretty soon they’ll be doing it all by themselves.”
There’s one of the babies down below.
Next to the baby, in the photo on the right, is another product idea from the book: Either Way Slippers. The authors write: “At home there always seems to be a stubborn (slipper) that you have to kick around the room before you can get it facing the right way. Either Way slippers put an end to this nuisance.”
These are among dozens of ideas hilariously floated in “99 More Unuseless Japanese Inventions” (W.W. Norton and Co.), written by Kenji Kawakami, who invented and introduced the concept of Chindogu in 1985, and Dan Papia, an American follower of the Chindogu philosophy. It’s the second book in what promises to be an ongoing series.
In short, Chindogu “is the Japanese word coined for the art of the unuseless ideaweirdly logical designs for living . . . bizarre and logic-defying gadgets and gizmos (that) have a tendency to fail completely . . . “
And so, discover a tie that doubles as an umbrella, an electric rotating spaghetti fork, a solar-powered flashlight and an umbrella hat.
No dog toupees. Not yet.
