Just a little folding jobbie two to three inches long, with one straight edge blade, one with a Double-D® edge (now there's your punchline), and a pair of rigid-tined tweezers like a stamp collector might use. The body was DeLorean-style brushed stainless steel, suitable for engraving. It was actually kind of nice,…

A friend of mine here in Philadelphia once had a cab ride end with the driver stopping at a traffic light and getting out to have a screaming match with another cab driver. Apparently a personal thing. He and his companion quietly slipped away, I believe.

Multi-level sex toy and therapeutic oil marketing. Now there's a lifestyle…

Our gimmick, as Ms. Feldberg describes, was actually cutting the edge off a penny, which curled up into a sort of corkscrew to leave as a souvenir.
Those shears are still part of our kitchen equipment. One of the tips broke off, but I never bothered to get it replaced, since they're not exactly intended for fine…

I doubt they make much on the sales kits (at least the Vector Marketing guys. Cutco itself might make a bit), but they don't lose anything, and every set they get out there probably helps with word-of-mouth.

I've had the handles of two of the meat knives break over the 33 years I've owned my set, and they replaced them, free, no-questions-asked.

That was kind of the farce of it in my experience — Performance is less a function of your sales ability than of how large a network of fairly wealthy, spendthrift friends you have. When I ran mine out, I left, and got a real summer job pumping gas. Which also sucked.

I think the same goes for about 75% of the modern economy.

Pretty much their own products. I won a "dress pocket knife" for performing at the top of my "class", and then was supposed to win a hunting knife in another contest — one of those "Rambo"-types with a pommel you could hammer nails with. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of telling them I was quitting before they'd…

I did the Cutco thing back in 1983. At least back then, the idea was to try to make it a pyramid scheme — the sales managers who hired me made a bit on my sales, and if I'd sold enough, presumably I'd get similarly "promoted" to manager, and have an incentive to hire others. It is a comparatively legitimate product,…

The construction of the Parkway was roughly contemporary with City Hall, and one of the earliest and most extensive "urban renewal" projects in the US: http://www.parkwaymuseumsdi…

The statue's unflattering, but I think Ms. Izotova has pretty handsome features, albeit a definite case of "RBF".

Upvoted for Q.

Apparently the Singer Building was not the first modern building to take the title from Ulm cathedral. My home town of Philadelphia's City Hall held the world's tallest title from 1894 (though its interior wasn't finished until 1901) until 1908. City Hall apparently remains the world's tallest building with…

Not a typo, but a clever, unexpected twist!

Perfect opportunity to debut her album of acoustic sessions.

The lack of mention of them by the staff here is unconscionable.

I see the problem… This bear's switched to "Evil"!

For years you were lucky to get a plastic magnifying glass instead of the usual stupid temporary tattoo.

Though, in fairness, there have been a couple of Carl-centric episodes, while I don't believe there's ever been one focused on Lenny.