Patent No. 640,790: The Fly Killer

It's just one of the things I'm thinking about these days...

As a native Floridian my familiarity with pest control techniques is fairly extensive.  Ants, yellow jackets, spiders, walking sticks, mosquitoes, moths and roaches are just a few of the creepy crawlies that routinely make an appearance in my childhood memory.   But my most dreaded opponent was the fly.  I was certainly terrified of flying roaches (!) and spiders - I believe I was in my teens before could wrench myself out of fear paralysis at the sight of these eight legged beasts - but the flies were just plain nasty.  I imagined their existence as evidence of the all together 'yucky' and the tissue tap of their bodies on a window still makes me a little nauseous.  This general revulsion of these feet tasters (they, along with butterflies, have taste receptors on their feet) have turned me into a mercenary with a swatter.  I show no mercy. And, when a swatter is unavailable, I cause carnage with a rolled up piece of newspaper, which I recently found out was the go-to device before patent No. 640,790.  One of my classmates related the wonderful story about her grandpa and his own personal vendetta against flies.  He used a stealthy technique of lighting fast strikes and expert peripheral vision.  I can't imagine were all this fly-swat-talk will lead, but it's obvious I'm walking down the path...