Patented

What did we do before we had the...

Microwave "Fasta Pasta" Pasta cooker (you know, because boiling water on the stove is soooo hard)

Patented in Italy in 2002, and in the good old US of A in 2006. There's something not right when Italy, the land of spaghetti and vermicelli and rigatoni and orechiette and, and, and... issues a patent for a microwave pasta cooker. Don't you think someone at the Officina dei Patentsi should have stood up and defended the tradition of Italy's national carb?

Natural Peanut Butter Mixer (and here I was, stirring with a knife. What was I thinking?)

Patented by Robert N. Witmer of Ohio in 2004.

Did you know that George Washington Carver did NOT invent peanut butter? C.H. Sumner purportedly turned the world onto the stuff at the Universal Exposition of 1904 in St. Louis. Then, in 1922, Joseph L. Rosefield patented the formula for the shelf-stable stuff we grew up with. You know, the peanut butter that doesn't need to be mixed? But where's the fun in that?

Tuna Press (why use the lid when you can buy a piece of plastic to do the same thing?)

Patent evidently issued in 1999. But, alas, this indispensable product may soon be dispensed with - vacuum-packed pouches of tuna, introduced in 2000 according to the US Tuna Foundation (seriously, the Tuna Foundation), mean no liquid, and hence, no draining. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

Plastic Bag Opener (is there anything else to say?)

Patent issued in 2006 - I mean, what else could it be for?

Cucumber Deseeder (and here I am, scraping away with a spoon. Silly me.)

For this indispensable gadget, I could find no patent (shocking, I know)... But it too can be yours for the low, low price of just $10.







I often wonder, what did we do before the cell phone? before email? before the tuna drain? Excuse me, before the tuna press?

Don't you?