My Slant on the Slinky

At a Gimbels Department Store in Philadelphia in 1945, the Slinky toy made its American debut and by 1946 it was introduced to the American toy market. Developed by a naval engineer from Pennsylvania, the Slinky was basically a helical spring made of steel. In its heyday, Slinky was manufactured in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, a bustling borough seven miles south of Altoona.

The Slinky's main claim to fame as a toy was that it could go down a flight of stairs all by itself, with a little push from a kid at the top of the stairs. Other than this, the Slinky was probably the most fascinating and also the most boring toy ever produced in the 20th Century. It was eventually made of plastic, which made it cheaper, tackier and even more boring than before.

No matter how you felt about it, the Slinky toy from James Industries, Inc. was one of the most popular kid-and-gravity-powered toys in 20th-Century America, along with the baseball, football, Frisbee and the plain old rock. Now manufactured by Poof-Slinky, Inc. — a result of the 2003 merger of James Industries, Inc. and Poof Products, Inc. — the Slinky was one of the few baby-boomer toys that wasn't manufactured by Mattel, Marx or Ron Popeil (Popeil, Ronco).

Axis Legacy of Death

For the second time in the twentieth century an economically and morally bankrupt Germany would declare itself a nation of super people and blame all its woes on the rest of the world and especially on Jews living in Europe and the Soviet Union. This time, Germany had the help of Japan and Italy, two countries whose leaders simply claimed to be God’s gift to the world and the hell with anyone else, including their own people.

This time Germany’s legacy to the rest of the world, with the assistance of Japan and Italy, would be an estimated 52 million people dead worldwide, 6 million of them Jews whose deaths were not easy ones. Germany was a nation that needed to be squashed like a bug. Instead, people still buy their cars, guns and machinery as if nothing had happened. Nothing at all.

But Germany is not alone in its ability to be forgiven for its heinous and massive crimes against humanity. No one seems to remember Pearl Harbor, either, when they go shopping for a new car or a TV. But then, no one is going to stop eating pizza or spaghetti, by the way, and doesn’t everyone want to wear at least one thing with an Armani label before they die?

The good news is that there will probably never be a Third World War as long as the children and grandchildren of mass murderers control companies in the Fortune 500.