Butterfingers Get a Grip with Popcorn Fork
KELLAN: You can use the Internet to chat, do research, shop, play games -- so why not use it to take piano lessons? Denise Dillon has more.</s>DENISE DILLON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Andy Kossowsky is getting ready for his piano lesson, but he's in Fords, New Jersey, and his teacher, Andrew Gordon, is 3,000 miles away in Lawndale, California.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, Andy, today's lesson, with the blues scale we get something like this.</s>DILLON: The Web site, onlineconservatory.com, puts students and teachers together with a click of a mouse. Using specially designed software, teachers and students can follow each other's keystrokes by watching a keyboard on their computer screens. And they can talk to each other in real time.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, good, Andy. That's a good start.</s>DILLON: Kossowsky says he always wanted to learn to play, but never seemed to have the time. Now he takes lessons right from his own living room at a time that fits his schedule.</s>ANDY KOSSOWSKY, PIANO STUDENT: If you're taking a half-hour lesson, you only need a half hour of time. This way, oh, it's 7:00, put in the software and I'm playing music for half an hour, done, 7:30.</s>DILLON: Since January, more than 800 students in 55 countries, from America to Afghanistan, have taken lessons through the online conservatory.</s>DERRICK HOWE, ONLINECONSERVATORY.COM: I made the statement, it will forever change the way people learn music. And it's true.</s>DILLON: Students can choose their own music style, from classical to hip hop. And they can choose their teacher. While the cost varies per instructor, the average price for a half hour is $20. But students say it's the convenience that can't be beat.</s>KOSSOWSKY: That's all, Andy, thanks.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, take care, bye.</s>DILLON: For SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY WEEK, I'm Denise Dillon.</s>KELLAN: Now sometimes we're able to bring you a story about an important invention that will change our lives. This is not one of those times. But you will find this invention important if you hate getting your hands greasy when you eat buttered popcorn. Jeanne Moos has the story.</s>JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): All it took was the kernel of an idea. (on camera): It's a popcorn fork.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALES: Oh!</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bon appetit.</s>MOOS (voice-over): Perfect if like popcorn to melt in your mouth, not in your hands.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because I don't like to get my fingers greasy.</s>DON SOTHMAN, INVENTOR: And you hold it like a pencil, and you plunge it in.</s>MOOS: Don Sothman took the plunge nine years ago. That's when this Menomeny Falls (ph), Wisconsin, machinery manufacturer patented the popcorn fork.</s>SOTHMAN: I mean, we don't eat mashed potatoes and gravy with our hands because we've invented a fork for that.</s>MOOS: So why not for popcorn? Sothman had observed popcorn eaters at their worst in movie theaters.</s>SOTHMAN: A lot of them were literally wiping their hands on the seats.</s>MOOS: But those who like their popcorn by the fistful tend to resist the popcorn fork. Sothman has sold fewer than 100,000 of them.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's terrible! It's terrible!</s>MOOS (on-camera): Why? What's wrong with it?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because, look, you only get one corn.</s>MOOS: Watch a master at work here. (voice-over): This after a mere half hour of experience with the popcorn fork. Sothman figures a good stab can net you four to six kernels. This is the wrong way to use a popcorn fork, and this is the right way. (on camera): I like your nail polish.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you. How do I let it go?</s>MOOS: Well, you just shove it in your mouth.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh.</s>MOOS (voice-over): True, many a kernel missed its destination. And we recommend against using the popcorn fork in windy conditions. (on camera): Whoa!</s>SOTHMAN: You can eat just about as fast with this, once you get used to it, as you can eating with your hands, because you can only fit so much in your mouth, you know?</s>MOOS (voice-over): We know.</s>SOTHMAN: Works great for cheese. Always -- you know, you always get a mess on your hand with that.</s>MOOS: And though the popcorn fork looks a little cheesy, it was a big hit in Times Square. (on camera): How much? (voice-over): For three of them, $3. Though she whipped out her wallet, the only place to buy this utensil is on the Web at popcornfork.com. (on camera): Oh, I didn't show you the best part. The salt.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now, that's cool!</s>MOOS (voice-over): There's no butter dispenser, but each fork has a built-in salt shaker that left folks shakingýshaking with laughter. And talk about a fork in the road. For SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY WEEK, I'm Jeanne Moos.</s>KELLAN: OK, thanks for joining us. I'm Ann Kellan. Next week, this is what happens when two atoms smash together. We'll visit a new atom smasher designed to take a closer look at the process that could reveal what happened right after the Big Bang. That's coming up on the next SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY WEEK. We'll see you then.