The Family Genius

Jerry may not have been the brains of the family, but he sure knew a good thing when he smelled it. His brother was the one with the chem lab in the basement and the imagination. Kid brothers tended to be like that. It’s why Jerry and Kevin made such an effective team. Kevin dreamed up the crazy ideas and Jerry figured out how to put them into action. And that’s how it happened with Skunk Shot®. Kevin mixed up a secret brew of ingredients – he wouldn’t tell anyone just what it was, but the result was that the entire family fled in haste from the house on a bitter Saturday afternoon in February, after opening all the windows and turning on the attic fan. Jerry found himself at an uncharacteristic loss for words when he tried to remember the stench. “Like a fifty-year-old backyard privy on an August afternoon” was how he tried to describe it to me. I’ve smelled the stuff, and that isn’t even close. It can make your eyes water and stimulate the gag reflex at the same time. But that Jerry! Even when he’s holding his nose and trying to keep from throwing up, those wheels in his head are always turning. They made the initial discovery five years ago, when Kevin was 15 and Jerry was 17. Today, Skunk Shot® (Reg. U.S. Pat. Off.) is the prime police tool for flushing [suspected] drug dealers out of abandoned buildings. Those kids are fixed for life, even if you have to edge away from them in crowded elevators.