A Stroke of Genius
"A Stroke of Genius" is the name commonly associated with the event where inventor John C. Buckman invented the spatula. The event was given the name because before he came up with the idea for the spatula he had stroked his pet cat on the back, which "Gave him the idea for it all."
From that point on, John credited his cat for everything he ever did, including the time he won the lottery, got the key to his local city, and mercilessly slaughtered three civilians, resulting in the termination of the cat.
Buckman and His Cat[edit | edit source]
John C. Buckman was an endearing fellow; one who generally had a good time wiping his fish and whatnot. John was a professional sock puppeteer, who, in fact, made very little money. He went around town doing little shows for kids, and their parents usually paid John about twenty dollars per show. And he usually had about three per year. He got the rest of his money from swimming in public fountains.
Buckman had a cat, and it was named Froodle-Bump. No one is exactly sure as to why John named it that, but he did so and everyone lived with it. Apparently, based on the pictures in Buckman's photo albums, the two enjoyed doing Log Rolling, Lumberjacking, and other tree-related activities excluding Extreme Ironing. John, however, was o creative person; the albums also revealed images captioned "My Inventions" with pictures of him holding up a wheel, a rock, and a stick. However, John did become creative after one stroke of his cat.
This raised a few questions, including "Had he ever pet his cat before?" or "Did this particular pet of the cat possess magical powers?" which to this day have remained unknown.
The Stroke[edit | edit source]
On June 16, 1924, John made the particular stroke which, as he said "Gave me the whole Idea." The details are clear; he was sitting in canoe that was nailed to the wall in his parlor (some say Buckman is a lunatic) and his cat was walking across the room. John, conveniently chained to the wall, struggled to get out of his shackles, but after hours of chewing through the steel and losing a few teeth he finally made it out. He walked across the room, and stroked his cat's back.
At that point, a lightbulb appeared above his head and lit up. Then it fell on his head, shattered, and the glass shards spread across the floor. He stepped on it an injured his feat, but he did not care for his mind was thinking of something greater. That something would become the spatula. Initially he took a fork and stuck it into a muffin, but he realized that would not make an effective lever. And so he fiddled around with different things, a bowl of Jell-O, a couple frozen fish sticks, and a mattress. However, it was not until he took a stick and tied a playing card onto the end of it that he noticed he had a real great thing.
He later went through several stages of product development, where in he created the perfect new device. It may have taken him two Beluga Whales, three pounds of flour and 3000£ to finally make it, but he did so. He originally named it "Flubber Flipper", but due to general lack of appeal and flavor he changed it to "Spatula".
Spatula Publicity[edit | edit source]
After John C. Buckman released his new invention to the public, it became an instant hit, even more so than the always-popular 'Hit me in the head with that bat' game. This brand new product sold not like hot cakes, but rather an all-new cereal brand that had been advertised on children's television networks. In only the first week, he gained nearly two thousand dollars in profit of his new product. And he credited it all to his pet cat.
Buckman and his cat soon became annoyingly famous. The cat, in fact, became a highly paid celebrity, who starred in several television commercials even though television didn't exist yet. The cat had thousands of adoring fans, and so did John, but many believe he would have had so much more if he didn't "Look like a raccoon that got ran over by a tank." Like all quick rising stars, John could hardly handle the publicity, and instead to relieve his stress resorted to meth. Methanol cough drops, that is. He soon became so addicted to the cherry-flavored tablets that he couldn't go across his bedroom without getting a fix. But soon he ate all of his cough drops and became normal again.