Small and difficult beginning for Baby on Board car sign
In 1985, a year after its debut, the ubiquitous yellow Baby on Board car sign had been affixed to more than three million cars in the US. Massachusetts resident Michael Lerner started Safety 1st, a brand that marketed everything from poison alert labels to soft tap caps so that babies wouldn't hurt their heads in the tub. Lerner, who had no children of his own, recalled feeling anxious as he drove his 18-month-old nephew home from a family gathering in a congested traffic area. He convinced department stores that the signs belonged in the infant section, not their automotive display and it was there it took off. Once Baby on Board caught on, it became easy for companies to manufacture parody replicas: Baby Driving, Grandma on Board ... Road safety experts had reservations about signs obstructing the driver's view and some states allowed them on the lower half of the back windscreen, but other states had police officers giving drivers a US$30 ticket. In 1986, the Insurance Information Institute declared the signs posed a hazard for drivers who could become distracted by trying to read them. In 2000, Lerner sold the company for US$38 million. In 2014, the owners estimated more than 10 million signs had been sold. (Via Mental floss.com)
Going it alone ... together
Divorces are expensive, but now you can crowdfund it. "A divorce is one of the biggest life changes involving costly legal fees, setting up a new household, even unexpected costs like when the divorce is contested," the website Plumfund reads."This is a way for someone close to a divorcee to say, 'We're going to rally around you and support you.' It doesn't have to be taboo," explains site owner Sara Margulis, who first set up honeymoon registry Honeyfund in 2006.
