OUR BRILLIANT INVENTIONS

RHYS BOWEN: I was driving to a doctor's appointment this morning and it's been very cold (by California standards. In the forties, I mean). And I decided that the best invention of the Twentieth Century was heated car seats. I was so cozy and comfortable by the time I pulled up in the doctor's parking lot that I didn't want to move.

So I started thinking about other things I wished they'd invent to make my life easier.

You know what I'd like to develop, if I had the time and resources to do so?  The un-towel. I dislike towels intensely. They never quite dry every inch of my back. You have to wriggle and change angles and part of you gets cold and wet while you dry the other bits. They slip off rails and lie in wait on my bathroom floor. What I'd like is something that blows warm air at me, all over my body while I gently revolve. Maybe a long pole with little jets coming out of it at regular intervals, like they make new showers, only with air instead of water. That shouldn't be too hard, should it? And much more hygenic than a towel that has probably fallen to the floor a couple of times and been washed in harsh detergents.

So now I'd like to hear from my brilliant sisters: what would you like to see invented this bright new year?

LUCY BURDETTE: I would think your untowel device should be easy enough to invent, Rhys--like an all-body hairdryer right? I would like a machine to automatically relax me when I get tense. Traffic is crazy? Babies are screaming? Political news is horrendous? The machine kicks in with its automatic relaxation. We don't need quite so much of the fight-or-flight response as we did back in the cave dweller days. I know, this makes me sound a little lazy:) but relaxation is hard!

RHYS: Even if it was like one of those old hairdryers and you just put it over your head and it played soothing beach and mountain scenes while murmuring "Everything is calm and peaceful". Sounds good to me.

HALLIE EPHRON: Oh, Rhys, I hear you. It's the one good thing about winter in colder climes. The radiator in my bathroom heats up and I can drape my bath towel over it so that when I get out of the tub, the towel is toasty warm.

What I'd like is a way to block robocalls on my land line. At a minimum, block "spoofing" (incoming calls that display a number that's not real.) All I can think is there must be a way that the phone companies make money off those calls. Otherwise they'd be banned because surely the technology exists to do so.

JENN McKINLAY: Being in AZ, I feel you on the cold after the shower. I don't like it and your towel idea sounds lovely. I don't really have an inventor's mind. I'm usually slow to embrace new gadgets - still don't have an Instant Pot and only got my iPhone three years ago because I really liked the mini keyboard on my old phone (sigh) - so I'm more of a wait and see if this new fangled thing is really all that. And, of course, living in the frat house as I do, my obsession is mostly with cleaning. I'd give anything for help that doesn't roll its eyes, a leveling up of the current robotic vacuum to more of the Jetsons robotic maid Rosie.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Is there an empty-the-dishwasher gizmo? I really hate to empty the dishwasher.  A fitted-sheet folder? I'm a disaster at that, but have lowered my standards.

 Is there a way to put expense receipts directly into a thing so you don't have to keep little slips of paper? (I guess there are apps, but you still have to to something. Hmm. I suppose if you paid everything through ApplePay (let's say you had that, which I don't) it would keep track of it. But I still have not turned in my expenses from this fall, and ah. SUCH a pain.)

Hallie, those calls are often illegal, but bad guys don't are if they're illegal, that's the prob. Do what we do--just don't ever answer the landline phone. Unless caller ID says it's someone real.

And I love towels. Nice fluffy warm towels. Rhys, you make the body dryer thing--which sounds a little uncomfortable to me, just saying but that's just me--and I will take over your towels.

RHYS: Hank, take a picture with your camera and save to Evernote or similar. You can have folders for specific receipts. Travel/entertainment/gas etc.)

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I would love an invention that would pre-heat my cast iron bathtub when it's really cold in our house! I have to turn on the space heater in my little bathroom and let it run with the door closed for about an hour, just to get the tub warm enough that I don't scream when my back touches it. At least I can keep adding hot water with my toes...

I would also love something that would take care of the whole drying/fixing hair thing. Although my friend gave my this micro-fiber turban thing for Christmas, and it is way cool. You don't even touch your hair with a towel--you just put this turban on, wrap it tight, and button it, and by the time you've dried the rest of you, put on lotion or whatever, your hair is almost dry. Makes it much less frizzy and more manageable, too. A great invention!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I'm not much one for thinking up gadgets, but I'm great at thinking up services. Like a dating app just for those of us with gray hair and wrinkles: SenioR. (It should be SeniR ro go with GrindR and TindR, but somehow it looks sillier that way.) Or how about this one, which I came up with after Youngest was telling me about how stressed she was: PupstR! Feeling tense? Anxious? You just need a few minutes with something other than bad news? PupstR sends an experienced, friendly dog to your home, dorm or office. You can pet or play with the dog, take him or her for a walk, or just revel in the calming effect of having a soulful-eyed friend curled up next to your desk chair.

By gum, if I had any idea how to make websites or apps, I'd be a disrupter par excellence.

RHYS: The robo-maid sounds like the best idea, but witnessing John dealing with Alexa, I'm not too hopeful.  I haven't yet gotten around to a Roomba--we seem to have too many surfaces. So do they work?  And have you noticed that everything we want to invent is for our own comfort, not the good of mankind?  Are we shallow or do we just deserve a little warmth/serenity/ease?
And please share your brilliant ideas that would make our lives so much easier and more pleasant.