The Wombat File Is Yours to Keep

Match Game

uh, no wait, that's Mark Goodrich (and Bill Todman?)

Are we talking about the humble toaster?

OK, I thought not. Just wanted a pop tart -- they don't make them down under. They aren't good for you anyway.

what? no clues at 3AM? come on, wombat!

boxjam reads question.
understands 'bf goodrich' and nothing else.
well, canada.
but how useful is that?

guesses rubber cement.

My second guess is the glue gun.

OK, just to paraphrase my confusing question: World-wandering Swede invents something big; Goodrich incorporates in a product, and names that product something catchy. That product's name comes to stand for the Swede's invention.

Then a second guy comes along and sets up a business making a completely unrelated product. He likes the name coined by Goodrich, so he tweaks it slightly and uses the name for his own product. That name is still in use.

The name Goodrich came up with is also widely used, but has evolved into a generic, rather than brand name.

And nobody's right.

Steel-belted radial.

Pie.

Now you're just being silly.

The modern "pie" was invented in 1946. (Earlier references to "pie", of course, referred to what is now known as a "lo-cal smoothie.)

Boxjam's got me on a glue binge. Heh.

Epoxy?

No. I'll give you one more hint: Goodrich's product, which spawned the name later applied to the invention, was footwear.

The only brand name that people use in lieu of a generic name seems to be Kleenex. (Except in the South USA where they call all soft drinks "coke" but I simply consider them crazy).

OK, ugg-boot? (there seems to be some kind of controversy over whether these are an Australian invention or not).

Doc Marten's?

Galoshes sounds almost Swedish enough.

Yeah, galoshes do sound stupid enough. And rubbery enough to be a Goodrich-synergy leveragization.

I'm going to just assume that's the right answer and move on to the bonus question. Blaisdell's product/company is Oshkosh b'Gosh, from which the town of Oshkosh, Wisconsin back-formed its name.

Blaisdell invented baba ganoush.

garoche.

scaramouche.

Nothing yet. I'll give you one more clue -- the invention to which Goodrich's product wind up lending a name is found in many places now, and not just on -- indeed, not primarily on -- footwear.

Art, there are lots of brand names other than kleenex that people use in lieu of the generic. Here are a few (and forgive me if I am missing a joke -- copy editors are prone to that):

aspirin
scotch tape
dumpster
realtor
tampon
laundromat
q-tip
brassiere
escalator
styrofoam
cellophane
kerosene
band aid
chapstick
super glue
jello
brillo pad
jeep
ping pong
plexiglass
fiberglass
microchip
mace
rollerblade
yo-yo
jacuzzi
x-acto knife
xerox
thermos
granola
kitty litter
vaseline
zipper

three recent ones:
post-it note
walkman
ipod

There are tons more.

zipper is probably the right answer, huh?

And Blaisdell made zippo lighters.

Thanks, Scraps--

No joke, I just didn't spend much time thinking about it. But now that you have, it occurs to me that some of these products are the very ones that are called differently here in Oz (e.g., jelly instead of jello, which is very confusing). But USA's economic imperialism makes this an increasingly minor problem (!)

Scraps alley-oops to Boxjam for the dunk. The boot was called the Zipper, and that's what Sundback (I think, by the way, there's an umlaut in there somewhere) invented. And, of course, the Zippo followed. Blaisdell even thought that the sound of the Zippo's lighting mechanism was reminiscent of that of a zipper. I think that's a bit of a stretch, but as a nonsmoker, perhaps I haven't listened closely enough...