[Buddha-l] obit for inventor of frisbee

[Dan Lusthaus]

As every practicing Buddhist knows, the best prevention against zafu 
hemorrhoids is to intermix sitting and walking meditation with Shakyamuni's 
favorite form of meditation, frisbee tossing. Here is the obit of its 
inventor from the Washington Post, with information even trivial pursuits 
afficionados wouldn't know.

Dan

Frisbee inventor Fred Morrison dies at 90
The origins of the ubiquitous Frisbee, friend to picnicgoers and college 
kids everywhere, are shrouded in legend. But the disc's lineage can in fact 
be traced back to one man, Fred Morrison, who died Feb. 9 at his home in 
Monroe, Utah. He had been ill with lung cancer.

Mr. Morrison got the idea for a flying-saucer toy in 1937 when, during a 
family Thanksgiving feast in southern California, he and his girlfriend 
entertained themselves by tossing a popcorn-tin lid back and forth in the 
backyard.

The lid eventually dented, ruining its aerodynamic potential. Mr. Morrison 
experimented with a sturdier cake pan, which he and Lucile sold on weekends 
at beaches and parks in the Los Angeles area.

After serving as a fighter-bomber pilot during World War II and enduring 48 
days as a POW in a German stalag, Mr. Morrison went to work as a carpenter. 
But he never lost sight of his flying-cake-pan entrepreneurial dreams.

In the 1950s, he designed an aerodynamic disc made of plastic. The nation 
was then caught up in UFO fever; Mr. Morrison called his invention the Pluto 
Platter and marketed it at fairs in California by dressing up as an 
astronaut.

Hula Hoop manufacturer Wham-O Mfg. took notice of the Pluto Platter's brisk 
sales and bought the rights in 1957, renaming it "Frisbee" when an executive 
noticed Ivy Leaguers' penchant for tossing around pie pans from the Frisbie 
Pie Co.

Mr. Morrison earned seven figures in royalties. And the world was never 
quite the same.



http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postmortem/2010/02/frisbee-inventor-fred-morrison.html?hpid=news-col-blog