Iconic Aussie movie The Castle made bug zappers almost fashionable when the Kerrigans used the electrical device to find ‘serenity’ in Bonnie Doon. Plus, there has always been the Aussie-summer ‘bug zapper dare’, whereby an older sibling will nonchalantly invite his/her younger to breach the gridded cage with a slender childhood digit and ‘feel the warm, glowing light’.
Yes, the combination of bugs, electricity and the Australian way has always brought pleasure and pain to the Christmas season. That’s why we have chosen to honour US patent 5107620, the electrified table-cloth as our Bi-Goodness this February, as we meander back to work, with fond memories of backyards, BBQs and buzzing flies.
Designed to discourage bugs from crawling on a table cloth, the electrified table cloth shocks them, much like an invisible dog fence. However, while it’s tempting to assume that a fierce electrical impulse to the brain was the inspiration for US patent 5107620, this idea might not be as wacky as it first seems.
We might all have eaten a little less over the holidays if our stomachs had been made to jiggle with an electric ‘tickle’ from the table. And children will be far less likely to snatch that early Bon-Bon if they fear it’s loaded with more than lead-based novelty trinkets, bad hats and even worse knock-knock jokes. Just think of the zing that the copper coins in last year’s Xmas pudding could, have delivered.
We take our Santa-hats off to the inventor of this Ah-Ouch moment.
