If you want proof that human innovation knows no bounds, one would have to look no further than the story of an Ohio man getting a DUI for crashing his motorized bar stool.
Police in Newark, 30 miles east of Columbus, say when they responded to a report of a crash with injuries on March 4, they found a man who had wrecked a bar stool powered by a deconstructed lawn mower. Twenty-eight-year Kile Wygle was hospitalized for minor injuries. Police say he was charged with operating a vehicle while intoxicated after he told an officer at the hospital that he had consumed 15 beers. Wygle told police his motorized bar stool can go up to 38 mph.
Now, I’ve done some questionable things under the influence of one too many drinks in the past, but have been lucky enough not to become an internet celebrity for any of these antics. But then again, I could never construct anything like this in a million years.
I’m just not that mechanically inclined.
Conceivably, Wygle probably mentioned his bar stool masterpiece to his friends. It just seems like someone who would engineer something this unique would be proud of it.
The real question is what kind of feedback he got on it. If my blog cohort Kevin casually mentioned to me he’d built such a device, I can’t imagine how many questions he’d be forced to answer. How long did it take? How’d this idea come to you? What do you plan on doing with it? Why does the world need this? Why would you create a device that’s main purpose is for drunk-driving?
I guess what we can take out of this is that drinking 15 beers and hopping on your motorized lawnmower-bar-stool-thingy always seems like a good idea at the time, but should probably be avoided.
