Mental Floss put up an interesting article about the history of the Trapper Keeper, which is right up there with Lisa Frank stickers in terms of potent nostalgia catnip for my generation. Basically, the Keeper was the shrewd result of extensive market research—inventor E. Bryant Crutchfield called it "the most scientific and pragmatically planned product" in the school-supplies industry—that combined an array of desktop tools and references (multiplication tables, rulers, etc.) with a binder that wouldn't shed pages when handled. Oh, and terrible cover graphics. What the hell does Rad Dog even mean, anyway?
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