I love shaggy dog stories. By definition 'shaggy dog stories play upon the audience's preconceptions of joke-telling. The audience listens to the lengthy story with certain expectations, which are met in some entirely unexpected manner.'

My SIGN INVITATIONAL entry is a visual shaggy dog story without a doubt. This story began many years ago when I built the first version of this machine. It was a hand cranked IDEAMATIC. The story goes that when I was stuck for an idea I simply went to the machine, turned the handle and out popped a creative inspiration. That's how I managed to always be so creative through the years. This latest version is the most advanced IDEAMATIC yet. It's steam powered of course. Once fired up and with a full head of steam I can simply type in what I'm looking for, pull the leaver to activate the machine and out pops the inspiration. It's never let me down yet. At the ISA show I am confident the IDEAMATIC will print out the best idea ever seen... along with the punch line to my shaggy dog story of course.