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} Not if you know how it was invented....
}
} To explain this, we have to go back to the 1930s. In New York City, in
} the Flushing district, was the headquarters and factory of the Acme
} Joke and Novelty Co. Acme specialized in the sort of cheap novelty
} items you see advertised in comic books: X-ray specs, fake dog poop,
} red-hot chewing gum, disappearing ink, exploding chasity belts
} (discontinued after a lawsuit), gag non-flammable gasoline, joke phoney
} dead fish (smells real!), you name it.
}
} Anyway, it so happens that Sol Wasserman, Acme's president, was the
} cousin of Yitzak Finklestien, who was a major NY building contractor at
} the time. Wasserman, as you might imagine, loved practical jokes. One
} day in August 1937 he was experimenting in Acme's lab, and he came up
} with a sticky, thick, grey substance, which looked to him like freshl
} mixed cement. Wasting no time, he contacted Murray Abramson, who
} supplied cement to Finklestien's contracting company, and arranged for
} a shipment of the gag "rubber" cement to be sent in place of the real
} stuff. Finklestien was fixing a sidewalk in Flatbush (Brooklyn), and
} was confused at first when the cement refused to set properly. A good
} laugh was had by all when Finklestien, checking the "cement", lost his
} balance and fell in, where the sticky, rubbery gag cement kept him
} stuck for three days. [Finklestien is said to have retaliated by using
} *real* cement to "attach" Wasserman to the front of a local bar for a
} few days, but that's another story]. Wasserman thought he had a hit,
} and began marketing the "rubber cement" in toy stores and magic shops
} in New York, but sales never took off. Upset one day over low sales,
} Wasserman smashed a bottle of the stuff on his desk. His mood changed
} when he noticed how well the "cement" held things together on his desk.
} In a stroke of marketing genius, he took his existing stock of "rubber
} cement" and sold it to office supply stores. He considered changing
} the name but the stuff was already bottled and labelled, so [PUN
} ALERT!] he stuck with it. Needless to say, the "rubber cement" was
} very popular, and Wasserman retired a wealthy man.
}
} You owe the Oracle a bag of those fake plastic ice-cubes with bugs in
} them, and an explanation of the term "light heavyweight"
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