The inventor of Sea Monkeys and X-Ray Specs (as well as 191 other things) was born Harold Nathan Braunhut in a New York Jewish family. At some point, he changed his name to the more German-sounding Harold von Braunhut, though his close friends knew him as Hendrik von Braun. He hung out with his friends (including the recently poor Richard Butler) posing in front of Nazi flags, lighting burning crosses, and writing newsletters that advocated a society where Blacks were forced to make leather sporting goods out of Jewish skin. Braunhut has lost several Sea Monkey distributors because of his activities, but the current distributors (who have managed to reignite sales) would rather not think about it. I learned all this via The Sea Monkeys and the White Supremacist -- a wonderful piece in this week’s LA Times magazine. The best quote from Braunhut: Sea Monkeys will remain naked until “fish wear pants”.