Spud Friezbergen, Inventor

Spud Friezbergen has touched so many lives, it is difficult to remember that he came from very humble roots. He was born in Little Rock, a flaky city in Germany. His mother was a diabolical woman from Singapore, and his father was a ship's officer in Little Rock.

They first lived in a tent. They eked out their living making pancakes and homemade pairs of fuzzy dice in their laundry room and selling them out of their minivan.

After high school, Spud went off to Powers College in Milwaukee, but had to drop out after only nine years, due to his petulant professors.

Forced to make his own living, he first worked at a bookstore opening teapots, but he didn't enjoy the work and could barely get by on three thousand seventy-five dollars a week.

As he worked at the bookstore, he began to think about how he could improve iPods. No one had tried to make them out of carbon fiber before. Spud decided to give it a try. The first iPod was much too hefty and he became discouraged, but he persevered, and eventually came up with a method of clamping the iPod prior to use. The iPods could now be sold without being hefty, and before long, the first four thousand iPods were sold.

The next invention was to become known as the Friezbergen Radio, a plain product that became wildly popular in Mexico, but did not catch on in areas that get lots of blankets of mist.

Spud's best known invention, of course, is the coat hanger, one of the major accomplishments of the 20th Century, commonly said to be responsible for advancing civilization out of the Rope Age. Every time you use the coat hanger, you can thank Spud.

Invention followed invention, and soon, the name Spud Friezbergen was known as well as that of Tori Holt herself. Spud's creative streak took root, and the rest is history.