Puzzle Description:

Pocket Protector.

#1: Teresa K (fasstar) on Sep 2, 2009 [SPOILER]

The pocket protector was invented by Gerson Strassberg around 1952. Strassberg was working on plastic sleeves for bankbooks. One day he placed one that he was working on into his shirt pocket while he took a phone call. When he noticed it there, he realized it would make a great product. Originally fashioned from polyvinyl chloride (PVC), pocket protectors were first marketed toward corporations as branded promotional fare. However, a more general market for the product soon arose, comprising students, engineers (prominently mechanical), and white-collar workers in sundry fields. Demand for the product fluctuated for decades, and finally plummeted during the 1980s in the face of growing social stigma and stereotypes (that of their wearers being nerds). The use also declined because pens had advanced to a point where they rarely leaked at all. [Wikipedia]

Thanks for this entry!

How funny. Nice.

I'm a stealth nerd - people don't usually know I'm a nerd from looking at me until I start talking. ;)

Thanks, Adam.

Stealth nerd? That's funny, Zandperl. :-D

I was called a secret nerd recently. Someone caught me talking Dr. Who with a friend. She said, "I always forget you're a nerd. You seem so normal. You're a secret nerd."

Though I think geek is a more appropriate term. You know, games and sci-fi and stuff like that rather than pocket protectors and computers.

Nice one, Teresa!

Thanks, Arduinna. I'll bet there are a lot of secret geeks on webpbn who masquerade as normal. :-)

Secret dweebs ?

I don't even try to masquerade as normal. :)

Count me as part of the nerd crowd too. But I always say - Nerds will rule the world!!

funny. I was never smart enough to be a true geek, but I hung out with them hoping brain cells would rub off on me...so am I a geek by association?

Definitely. :-)

Stealth nerd ... I think that one is a keeper. I know I'll be using it.

funny.

stealth nerd. geek by association. funny comments! cool image.

I'm not subtle enough to pull off "stealth nerd" :D

Hate to break it to everyone, but after trying to explain this site to family, friends and co-workers, all have deemed me a nerd; the general concensus seems to be that we have to be nerds to be on here in the first place. Maybe the stealth ones are the people who do puzzles, but don't join in on the comments.

If we are nerds we are the best there are!

Yeah! :-)

The Big Bang Theory is now making nerds just a wee bit cooler! Thanks for the puzzle, Teresa... I always like to learn something!

Let's hear it for the Nerds! Thanks, Carol.

Un-hip, un-hip, hurrah!

I'll drink to that.

My dad wore a pocket protector unironically throughout his career as an engineer. :)

Mine too!

Because of course he did!

I'm assuming he wore one so all of the other engineers in the 80's working at TI wouldn't make fun of him for being a jock.

D'aww. Mine worked for AISI (American Iron & Steel Association) and later SBCCI (Southern Building Code Congress International)

I miss the old SBC! That was the first code I used when I started in architecture! I actually still quote one of the requirements to plans reviewers to this day as evidence that my interpretation of the modern code is more in line with the original intent :)

Goto next topic

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