So that's how you do it?

I'm not sure why this caught my eye and my attention, but a recent TV news piece showed drying octopus (or should that be octopii?). Anyway, this was a region that catches and dries octopus by the many-many.

These were all pretty small. Maybe six to eight inches?

They showed the proper way to handle them. First you push a bamboo loop up into the hood, so that has a nice flat oval shape. Then you run a bamboo skewer sideways through them, so that they make a flat flying shape. Kind of like a flat ghost? With tentacles hanging down. You hang this from a bamboo pole along with hundreds of others. Let dry in the sun. They start out kind of grey and turn white as they dry, apparently.

Presto! In about three days, you have a dried octopus. Suitable for chewing whenever the urge strikes.

The field of drying octopoids on bamboo racks was rather striking. Flapping slightly in the breeze, twisting and tossing under the sunshine, grey-white leaves with ragged edges?

I wonder what they smell like?

Who is going to use this?

Sometimes I just don't see things the same.

The happy little news people gleefully showed a young colleague in a bar with the newest gadget for your cellphone. First they double-checked - yes, his cellphone was successfully connected with the laptop at the station, with a video link and control panel.

Then he hefted a large mug of beer, and chugged a good chug.

Grabbed the gadget and blew lustily into it.

And lo and behold, the gadget measured the alcohol level on his breath. This was sent to the cellphone via the cable in between, and from there, across to the laptop. So at the station, they could see his picture and the measured alcohol level.

The news people cheered! Soon to be a consumer item, apparently.

Nice little gadget, about the same size as a cell phone. Black plastic box with a cable that plugs into something on the cellphone, with a pullout white tube that you blow into. Associated software, I suppose, for the laptop.

But, but . . . I have to admit, I don't see your average drunk driver buying one and having someone monitor him. Perhaps the local police would like to carry it - it certainly is small enough. But expecting consumers to buy their own tester seems unlikely to me. And who the heck are you going to call to monitor you?

Can't you imagine the average business man calling home? "Honey, I've been drinking. Here, let me blow into the tester and you tell me if I can drive or not?" Nah, not likely.

Just because you can make something into a consumer item doesn't really insure there will be consumers, right?