Shit! I did miss yesterday’s challenge! 

Well, this is supposed to be an imperfect experiment. 

Practice makes perfect; it doesn’t start out that way. 

Not that perfection is ever the goal. Like Nirvana or pure Democracy, perfection is an ideal, not an achievable destination. Well, it can be an ethereal destination, achieved only in one individual’s perception. But generally speaking, trying to actually achieve perfection is a persistent confidence killer. 

Or a reason to drink. A lot.

So, that said, today I will write both challenge #8 and #9.

 I’m okay with that! So here is #8:

The Real Story of the Common Zipper (PART 1)

Today, I’d like to talk about the zipper, but I’ll probably only get as far as the introduction. My timer just went off. Fifteen minutes already!

So let me correct that.

Eh hem.

Today I’d like to talk about why I’d like to talk about the zipper.

 Almost every morning, while making my coffee—heating water in a kettle to pour into a paper cone perched on a coffee mug (I think it might be time to upgrade!)—I tell Alexa, “Launch This Day in history.” After each historic headline—usually USA-centric but covering a few centuries sometimes millennia—you have the choice to hear more about that event, hear about another event from that date or stop the app. 

To stop this particular app, you have to say, “Alexa, stop.”

To which she replies, “Good-bye,” as if wounded and passive-aggressively angry. It’s great fun!

I often skipped the detailed war history—and there’s a lot of war history—too much war history. I prefer human-interest stories. But anything that triggers my curiosity is okay with me.

A few months ago (on April 29, to be exact), I learned that on that day, the zipper was invented. It was National Zipper Day. 

I’m sure you celebrate it, find zippers around the house, on clothing and luggage, and give them a good zip back and forth to revel in their magnificence and that distinct sound and feel of the zipper. Right?

I heard something to the effect of:

“National Zipper Day commemorates April 29, 1913, when the patent for the modern zipper was issued. The day celebrates something that we often do not think about and may automatically take for granted. The first attempt at creating the zipper came from the inventor of the sewing machine.”

I was intrigued. I love innovation. To contrast the atrocities committed by humans, is ingenuity, imagination, creativity and kindness. I celebrate those things. And the invention of the zipper definitely required the first three. Perhaps even the fourth in some way. 

But here’s the thing. My father is an inventor. I know firsthand that inventions don’t just come about on any one day. That might be the patent issue date, but what is the real story? 

Don’t zip away! Fasten your petticoat for STORY OF THE ZIPPER or Zipper Madness! in Challenge #9!