Watch Dr. Shaw tell the story, or read it below!
Short Bedtime Stories Presents: Ben Ventor Deals with Vegetables
The inspiration for his next major invention
came to his mind at the dinner table, when for the 413th time his
family had broccoli as the vegetable. He
hated
broccoli. Mom always said, “One bite
for however old you are.” This worked
well for his younger brother and sister, but not so much for him.
“But, mom,” Ben protested, nightly. “In nine bites there will be no more squash
on my plate.”
Without showing any emotion, his mom would
simply smile and say, “One bite for every year, Ben. No arguing.”
Sometimes it made Ben angry that his Mom was
consistent in her parenting. At least
with Dad, he could reason. With, Mom,
what she said was the law and never changed.
Lucky for Ben, he was really good at making
inventions. So, that night before falling
asleep, he imagined the flavor fork. The
next day, when he woke up, he began to work.
By dinner time, he had a working model of his invention and was ready to
try it out on his mom’s disgusting
broccoli.
“Mom, I’ll have two helpings today,” Ben
said, with a bit of pride.
Immediately, his mom looked at him
suspiciously and said, “Nice try, Ben. The dog is outside already. You won’t be able to scoop it over to him.”
“I know mom. I just want to give it a try again.”
“The last time you tried to eat it,” chimed
in Ben’s dad, “you made throw up noises the whole way through.”
“I’m a changed man,” said Ben, again with
confidence.
His mom, now wanting in some way to call
Ben out on his lie, walked over and heaped two massive spoonfuls on to the
middle of his plate.
Before long, Ben’s parents had forgotten
about Ben’s spoonfuls of gross and had gone about there business.
Ben secretly put his mouth close to his
flavor fork and whispered, “banana split.”
Ben looked at his fork and waited as the
light on the handle blinked red two times, then turned green. Almost in slow motion, Ben poked the
broccoli with the fork and brought it up to his lips.
Before he tasted it, his nose had already
taken over, and the
broccoli smelled like the inside of an ice cream shop. Ben threw the first forkful into his mouth
and said, “Wow, Mom this is so good.”
His mom and dad looked over at Ben and
waited for the punch line to his joke.
“Seriously,” Ben said, shaking his head,
“so good.”
With that, Ben popped in another forkful of
broccoli into his mouth.
“Our little man’s taste buds are growing up
so fast,” his dad said, becoming a little teary eyed.
Ben inhaled the rest of his
broccoli, and
nearly gave his mom a heart attack in the process. That night at dinner, when Ben asked for
seconds of the squash, his dad looked like he was going to burst with
pride.
“Can you not taste this stuff?” asked Fran, who
was usually pretty cranky.
From that moment on, all of Ben’s meals
went down a lot easier. His green beans
became cinnamon toast. His broccoli
was always banana splits. And, his onions
became gummy bears. It was truly a dream
come true for Ben.
But soon Ben got tired of everything being
sweet. In fact he almost became sickened
by it. In fact, because Ben became
so bored with the sweet tastes,he began turning sweet things into
vegetables. His apple pie became corn. His candy bar became peas. And, his whipped cream became salad.
How
the flavor fork is used today: It is now
used in every school lunchroom across the country. Kids are happy to clean their plates of all
of the vegetables.
Flavor
fork sale price: 330 million dollars.
Manatee Bay Marina. He also bought his first 120 foot Yacht,
complete with an on deck pool and hot tub.
Don't forget to check out part 1 of Dr. Shaw's children's book series of inventions and craziness called Best Theme Park Ever for just $.99 on Amazon. Please leave a positive review on Amazon if you will! It helps get Dr. Shaw's work discovered by others. Also, when you buy it on Amazon, you can choose which iPod, iPhone, iPad or other device to send it to, as long as you have the free kindle app installed on that device.
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