原创 Hand me a can of jinx remover spray!

Have you seen that old Batman and Robin film? I'm talking about the one where Batman and the "Boy Blunder" are in the Batcopter flying around out over the ocean. Batman is climbing down a rope ladder hanging under the Batcopter when a trained shark jumps out of the water and clamps down on his leg.

Batman shouts up to Robin, "Pass me the can of shark-repellent spray!" The camera cuts to the inside of the Batcopter where we see a rack containing four spray cans, one of which carries the label "Shark Repellent." What are the odds?

The reason this came to my mind is that I just received an email from Warren Buckles, who was writing with regard to my blog The strange and unusual stuffs in my office. Included in the email was the following photo showing a can of Jinx Remover spray:

In his email, Warren said:

This isn't exactly a bit of mechanism, electronics, or an old publication, but it's been very useful over the years. A colleague who worked at Argonne gave it to me back in the late 1980s when I was having trouble getting a superconducting magnet project off the ground and it has served me well ever since. Observe the nice PWM-sine wave display on the scope—this project would never have worked without the magic of the Jinx Remover.

Hmmm... Now I'm thinking of the 4 x 4 x 4 3D tri-colour LED cube I was assembling yesterday, and which I hope to finish sometime in the next evening or so. Experience has shown me that when I first power this little rascal up... nothing will happen... and I'll then have to track down what's wrong. I think I could do with a can of Jinx Remover spray. I wonder where you get them from.