Here's an Idea!

 Back in the late 50s or early 60s, a feature called Here's an Idea ran on the funny pages in the daily newspaper. It showed an illustration and explanation of an idea submitted by a reader, who was supposedly paid $2 by HaI's author.

I needed Christmas money one year, so along about October I sent in my idea, thinking it would be accepted and I'd be paid by mid-December, in time for gift-shopping. Obviously, I was an optimist.
 

Well, December came and went; no luck.
Imagine my surprise when, maybe a year or two later, my idea did show up in the feature. But it was attributed to someone else! Dang. Had I been hornswoggled, or had two minds submitted the same idea? I'll never know.

My idea, in retrospect, was pretty lame: It was a clothesline running from the front door to the curb, with a carrier basket which accepted the delivered newspaper and traveled back and forth on the line. What a step-saver!