Did the Japanese rip off Slug Signorino?
Dear Cecil: Let no one deny that the Straight Dope exerts a mighty influence on society — even Japanese society. Years ago, to illustrate a column on male lactation, the incandescently gifted Slug Signorino drew a shirtless, macho man mountain wearing a kind of harness/brassiere with baby bottles in place of the bra cups. In accordance with Calvin Trillin’s observation that nowadays it’s difficult to invent a comic premise so outlandish that it won’t sooner or later be overtaken by reality — Trillin called this “being blindsided by the truth” — I submit to you the enclosed book, 101 Unuseless Japanese Inventions, by Kenji Kawakami. Turn to page 137 and you’ll find a photograph of a dignified Japanese gentleman in a business suit, slaking the thirst of the infant in his arms by means of a “Daddy Nurser,” a device consisting of a pair of breast-shaped milk containers complete with nipples on a pink-ribbon harness. It enables “father to experience the joy of nourishing his baby from his o
