A Few Things Before We Announce the Winner of the PERFECT GADGET Contest

I personally think this was our best contest yet. We received well over seventy entries. Some came with stunning blueprints. Others were beautifully written. However, unlike our last two contests, the winner was not chosen based on his/her writing or drawing skills. The judges were looking only for a creative idea.

And there were many to choose from. Once we narrowed the field down to ten finalists, it was painfully difficult to choose a winner. There were high-tech fingerprinting kits, Swiss Army-style compacts, lipstick microphones, and phones with James Bond-style features. I particularly appreciated the two entries that made use of feminine hygiene products. (No handbag-searcher would ever look twice at those!) And I have to give a special mention to the inventor of the "Brick Purse." If we had been judging based on hilarious illustrations, you would have been the winner, hands down.

Before we move on, let's recap the criteria on which the "gadgets" were judged:

It must be completely original.
It must be useful.
It must blend in with the contents of an average purse/backpack.
It must be something a girl could use without attracting any suspicion.

Thank you all for entering. We are proud to be surrounded by such genius!