Ohio limit of 1 ballot drop box per county blocked, appealed

125687247_web1_WB-Shooting

Police investigating fatal shooting on South Franklin Street

Hey, want to have some fun?
				The next time friends show up to visit or watch the game, go out to the kitchen for a minute or two and make some pounding sounds with a hammer.
				Call to them, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be there in a minute guys &#8211; just fixing a broken chair.&rdquo;
				Then give your most horrible scream and stagger into the living room, a big nail sticking through your finger. &ldquo;Oh no, no,&rdquo; you cry. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t believe I did this.&rdquo;
				Guaranteed to get the evening off to a great start!
				You used to be able to buy the old nail through the finger trick for maybe a quarter. It was just a rubber, flesh-colored sleeve you&rsquo;d put your finger into, and it had a huge fake nail seeming to stick through it, along with fake blood.
				Yes, once there was a golden era of tricks, jokes and goofy merchandise of all kinds. My parents&rsquo; store on Wilkes-Barre&rsquo;s East Market Street of decades past sold some of the best. Desirous of making America happy, I personally ordered and displayed little tins of itching powder and cigarette loads. Of course, I hope they were used responsibly.
				For more elaborate gags, there was a mail order company called Johnson Smith, which ran full-page ads on back covers of comic books and other magazines. Alas, no more! Johnson Smith closed its doors late last year.
				Ah, the great stuff you used to be able to send away for, and without spending a fortune either. Let&rsquo;s look at some of the old Johnson Smith ads.
				Really, haven&rsquo;t there been times in your life when a big rubber snake would have been just the ticket? Well, for only $2.69 you could have bought one a couple of feet long with &ldquo;threatening glance and slimy feel.&rdquo; There are lots of places where you could have used it &#8211; maybe curled up in somebody&rsquo;s chair.
				Or how about the realistic-looking rubber chicken for $6.49. As your dinner guests are arriving, swing the thing around a bit and announce that it&rsquo;ll be ready in a jiffy.
				For some fun out in public, especially on the street at night, it&rsquo;d be hard to beat the &ldquo;wild cave man&rdquo; mask for $3.95. For a few dollars more you could get the space alien with &ldquo;protruding veins.&rdquo;
				Don&rsquo;t you hate those people who are always borrowing ballpoint pens from you and then casually walking off with them? Though a bit pricey at $13.95, Johnson Smith offered a model that zaps the user with an &ldquo;electric shock&rdquo; when he tries to write with it. I guess it was worth the money, having been made by &ldquo;West German craftsmen.&rdquo;
				Ah, who could forget the old reliable dribble glass? For $1.39, even the most fastidious friend will &ldquo;slobber when they drink,&rdquo; read the ad.
				You can find some neat tricks today. My favorite is the fake coffee spill, with cup, that you place over your friend&rsquo;s computer keyboard or important papers before he or she sits down for the day&rsquo;s work.
				But, I think, the great age has passed. Go into a store these days and ask for cigarette loads and they&rsquo;ll probably call Homeland Security. Rubber snakes and shock pens are available online only if you search diligently. No more one-stop shopping.
				But the real problem is more what&rsquo;s happened to our national sense of humor. In these oh-so-serious times, are there still people who&rsquo;ll laugh over getting soaked by the dribble glass?
				Finding them, I think, might be the real trick.

Remember When: Itching powder, dribble glasses, other fun stuff