Talking About Inventions

My husband, the alien, asked me to look up information about sonic toothbrushes. I learned all sorts of things about how they use a technique called cavitation to make a space between the bacteria and food on teeth and the teeth themselves. That wasn't what interested him. He wanted to know if they would let him brush his teeth for less than 2 minutes. The short answer is NO. He lost interest.

I asked him if he'd like a soft thing to bite down on that he might have to keep in his mouth for 2 minutes, but no brushing required. He liked that idea. I wrote my brother, the inventor. My brother said -- it's two minutes. who cares?

Okay. I married an alien. Maybe I'm not normal. And of course my alien husband isn't normal. So, I emailed my most normal girlfriend. She didn't want a soft thing to bite down on and besides she thinks it would be hard to clean. Huh? It's a sonic cleaner. The thing can clean itself. Anyway, she wanted chewing gum that could clean her teeth.

That stuff already exists. Cleaning gum. She just hadn't heard of it.

Peelu Company - Dental Chewing Gum - Peppermint, 300 gum

My alien is not impressed. He doesn't chew gum. He wants something that requires no effort at all that will keep his teeth clean. And my brother doesn't want to invent it, so the idea is now out there for any inventors of like mind.

Meanwhile, I've been reading

A Taste for Red

in which the protagonist (a sixth grader at a new school) asks: "Could this sad specimen of an instructor possibly teach me anything? I doubted it. I was certain the man didn't even floss."

There's another customer for the sonic mouth cleaner.