Courtesy Flush

Jersey City, New Jersey: March 4, 2003

Four years ago, when his mother couldn't bend over to lower the toilet seat, Ron sprang into action.

First, he put the seat down for her. Then he began work on a tool to help people with similar dilemmas, a gizmo to assist them in raising and lowering the lid.

Ron named his invention the "Courtesy Flush," and once it's manufactured, it will sell for $24.95.

"You really have to use it to appreciate it," Ron said.

His mother was recovering from a rare double-hemorrhoid surgery when she had her encounter with the toilet, so when she yelled for his help, Ron feared she had suffered a massive inflammatory attack.

That wasn't her problem.

"Mama was holding the hand rail, and asked, 'Would you f*cking please put this f*cking seat f*cking down for me?'" Ron said.

The device is a contoured rod with a hook for the lid on one end and a handle on the other. It might look simple, but Ron struggled with several variations before settling on the final version.

"You ought to see some of the crude drawings I first came up with," he said. "After I applied the Second Law of Thermodynamics, it all came together. The LaGrange Transforms were tough to get through at times, but I bore down and got the needed work done. I couldn't be prouder. ...And Mama can use the can on her own now whenever the mood should strike her."

Posted by Ron at March 4, 2003 12:20 AM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://ron4president.com/cgi-bin/mt32/mt-tb.cgi/63