Kevin Walzak of Syracuse, N.Y., has invented a device that seeds and slices a mango in less than a second. He tells Madeleine Brand about the invention. The OXO mango splitter
MADELEINE BRAND, host: This is DAY TO DAY.  I'm Madeleine Brand.</s>MADELEINE BRAND, host: One of life's great frustrations:  cutting a mango.  Do you cut it in      half, trying to get close, but not too close to the pit?  Do you peel it      and then hack away at the flesh?  Thankfully, and for me not a moment too      soon, a new tool has arrived to help.  It's called the Mango Splitter.      It's from OXO, and Kevin Walzak invented it.  His day job?  He's a pastor      in Syracuse, New York, and he joins me now.</s>MADELEINE BRAND, host: Welcome to the program.</s>Reverend KEVIN WALZAK (Inventor, Mango Splitter): How are you,      Madeleine?</s>MADELEINE BRAND, host: Fine, thank you.  Well, tell me about this Mango Splitter.  How      does it work?</s>Reverend KEVIN WALZAK (Inventor, Mango Splitter): When you get the mango--Right?--just point the nose--you      know what I mean by the nose?</s>MADELEINE BRAND, host: I know what you mean by the nose.</s>Reverend KEVIN WALZAK (Inventor, Mango Splitter): Point the nose away from you.  Put this thing on the top,      steady it a little bit, and once you get it started, don't be afraid to      go for it. And that seed will just come right through the hole that you      have on the Mango Splitter.  And you'll be saying, `Wow!'</s>MADELEINE BRAND, host: So you split it in half?</s>Reverend KEVIN WALZAK (Inventor, Mango Splitter): Exactly.  And once you press down and the seed is out, you      have two halves that are just ready for you to do whatever you want with.      It just is so smooth and easy that I think anytime I have done it or      shown someone who's eaten mangoes, they just say, `Boy, I can't wait to      get one of those.'</s>MADELEINE BRAND, host: That doesn't sound like a sales pitch.</s>Reverend KEVIN WALZAK (Inventor, Mango Splitter): It is.</s>MADELEINE BRAND, host: A little bit.  How did you come up with this?</s>Reverend KEVIN WALZAK (Inventor, Mango Splitter): Well, about two years ago, my sister gave me a piece of      mango on Thanksgiving Day, and she went into telling me how good it was      for me and so forth.  And so when we came back after Thanksgiving, I went      to the store and bought a few mangoes.  I pulled out my knife and found      that mangoes are extremely difficult to cut.  And when you do get them      cut, because of the seed, you often get a lot of waste that is left on      the seed, and you spend a whole lot of time really trying to get at the      fruit itself.  And as I was eating it I thought to myself, `Boy, wouldn't      it be nice to see if someone has made something to get this seed out?'      And in the process I found four ways to eat mangoes, but none of them      actually had a tool or an implement to actually get this seed out.  They      actually eat more mangoes in the world than they do apples.</s>MADELEINE BRAND, host: So your invention could really change the world, in a way.</s>Reverend KEVIN WALZAK (Inventor, Mango Splitter): Well, I think that it has potential.  I figure there are      three or four billion people who eat mangoes.  It's just a huge fruit.      And...</s>MADELEINE BRAND, host: Well, curious, then...</s>Reverend KEVIN WALZAK (Inventor, Mango Splitter): Yeah.</s>MADELEINE BRAND, host: ...that it's taken so long to come up with a tool to cut the      mango.</s>Reverend KEVIN WALZAK (Inventor, Mango Splitter): Yeah, you know, and that was part of the process.  I was      looking on the Internet for a long time because I figured that someone      had to have come up with this type of an idea.  And no one did, so I just      began to think about it, and I got a picture in my mind of what it could      look like and how it might work and began to measure the different seeds      of mangoes to see their sizes.  And then I made a drawing of what I      thought might be able to work and located a gentlemen who from time to      time has built prototypes for different companies.  After a week or so,      he came back with something.  And the first time that I did it, it      actually worked.  And I just said, `This is awesome.'</s>MADELEINE BRAND, host: Would it work on an avocado?  Just curious.</s>Reverend KEVIN WALZAK (Inventor, Mango Splitter): No, I don't think an avocado.  I have used it on peaches.      I've used it on apples.  I use it on pears.  But it takes a little bit      more of the flesh away on those fruits than on a mango.</s>MADELEINE BRAND, host: Kevin Walzak is a pastor in Syracuse, New York, and the inventor      of the Mango Splitter.</s>MADELEINE BRAND, host: Thank you again.</s>Reverend KEVIN WALZAK (Inventor, Mango Splitter): Have a great day.</s>MADELEINE BRAND, host: DAY TO DAY returns in a moment.  I'm Madeleine Brand.