Loose screws in the dark

Jan 9, 2011

Quickest of posts to share a funny anecdote brought on by this geegaw:

I attended the Duke TechExpo last Thursday — and I was a panelist on a session about communication technology strategies — and when I realized that this tote-bag item was a flashlight with screwdrivers (little metal screwdriver rods fit into the center of the light facet, and when pushed into a screw, engage the light), I chuckled in remembrance of my one-and-only appearance on live television.

That disaster had me, as editor of Northern Ohio Live, filling a one-hour slot on Cleveland’s public television fund drive. I fumbled my way through, and hit rock bottom when trying to make a station-branded flashlight seem more valuable then it might have been.

“You can use this for finding loose screws in the dark,” I mumble. Huh?

When I got back to my in-law’s home where Erin was waiting with her parents, I didn’t have to say a word before they laughed and laughed and laughed.

QVC host material I am not.

And yes, I’d read the Malcom Gladwell profile of Ron Popeil, The Pitchman. A lot of good that did me.

Anton Zuiker ☄