Ekwensu

Fighting off a fever brought on by exhaustion (I think) so I've been home for the last few days. Och, it's like the bad old days of Malaria. On the positive side, this is allowing me some time to finish the superlative book, The Fogotten Man. As I read, I'm not sure what to attribute the heat boiling in my belly to: the liberal bullshit policies of FDR and his collectivist cronies still dogging us to-day or the illness.

Here's a great quote of William Gladstone's from the book: “Credit is suspicion asleep.”

Through the hot haze of sickness, I was able to watch a snippet of the TV show, America's Next Great Inventor, or something equally stupid. As it happens, before I switched channels, there was a 53-year-old Nigerian, a call-center employee named Osayi presenting his invention, Scramber's 10. He kept repeating he was fron Lagos, Nigeria. Sure, Osayi is such a typical Yoruba name.

See if this reminds you of any other games on the market: Scramber's 10 is a game played with tiles on a board that has a crossword-like surface. A player pulls five tiles and plays it such that the numbers on the tiles add up to 10, winning 10 points. The person playing loses his turn if he cannot place tiles to add up tot 10.

Any guesses?

Right.

The judges asked him if he's patented his game, he said yes, he'd done so in Lagos, Nigeria. He'd filed for a trademark in the US for the name, which was under consideration. Osayi joins an illustrous group of inventors who have also filed patents in Lagos, Niberia, such as Samson Omoruyi, the inventor of the Telephone, and Mallam Aminu Kanu, inventor of the Personal Computer.

Fuck me.

I'm off the drug myself and watch The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, pretty much the same thing.