American Science & Surplus offers gag items such as chattering teeth and rubber chickens. A sense of humor sets the company apart from competing merchants of science fair supplies. Each year the catalog slips in a fake April Fool's Day listing. Among past gags were vials of 17,000 nanobots, bulletproof plastic wrap, and a shrinking device requiring depleted uranium pellets.
Cable credits creative copywriting for helping sales. When a listing described sleeping bag cushions as "fireworks-watching mats," people suddenly snapped them up, he said. One of the toughest things to move, however, is inflatable boxer shorts, likely from the 1950s. The awkward items were made to help people with poor swimming skills. Worn underneath swim trunks, they would inflate by mouth with a cork-plugged tube.
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