The Mother Load

There are times in a blogger's life when something happens that causes an immediate and powerful reaction. A giddy euphoria comes over the blogger as she looks upon her section of the world and thinks, "This. Must. Be. Blogged."

I had that experience the other morning when my husband leaned over the side of our bed, retrieved a plastic bag, and said, "Oh, I spent some money yesterday." He said it matter-of-factly, almost as an afterthought, completely unaware of the magnitude of what he was about to show me. Pulling the item out of the bag, he simply said, "It's a really big universal remote."

There are not words to describe the abject delight I felt upon seeing this thing. It was pure, unadulterated, blog fodder. It was like God smiled down upon me, threw this product into my lap and said, "Here. I made this for you. Write about it."

You can see the Sentry Really Big Universal Remote at the Sentry website, but the pictures there won't give you a very accurate idea of how big this remote is. I submit the following:



As you can see, it is exactly what it says it is.  It's a really big universal remote.  Quite a few of companies make universal remotes.  I'm sure most people have one.  But this universal remote?  It's really big.  REALLY BIG.  (Did I mention it's really big?)

This could easily have been a What I Learned Today post. That picture is worthy of it.  However, after my initial laughter at owning a remote the size of a skateboard, I realized that this product is awesome and must be blogged as such. 

I think this product is awesome for one really big reason.  I am a mother of five children whose collective goal in life is to lose every remote we bring home.  The average time from purchase to disappearance is about 30 minutes.  Most of the time, we don't even have a chance to program the remote before we lose it.  If losing remotes were a crime, we would be criminals of the serial variety.

I'm sure this product was designed and manufactured with a different segment of the population in mind.  I imagine those huge buttons were meant to aid those with arthritis and failing eyesight.  The fact that the same product allows me to keep a remote for longer than a day just adds to the awesomeness.

Moreover, in a world where electronic products continue to get smaller, it's nice to see something of the grande variety.  I have a keyboard on my cell phone with keys so small, I have to type with my fingernails.  Can you blame me for LOVING something with buttons I could push with my nose?  (Have you SEEN my nose?)

Finally, the name is awesome.  The makers of this product knew the remote would sell itself.  There was no need for silliness or grandiosity.  It's not the Ultra Huge Remotatron 2000 or other such nonsense.  It is what it is: a really big universal remote.  It's like the guys in marketing thought, "Why pander?"  Why, indeed?

(Thank you to Sentry for making a remote I can see from the moon.  Also, I can beat burglars over the head with it.  Bonus!)