Elon Musk prepares for flamethrower fire sale
Close your eyes, and you can almost hear the voice of Beavis, from the old 1990s TV series “Beavis and Butt-Head,” uttering one of his favorite lines (and no, it’s not “I am Cornholio!”). Rather, it’s, “Fire! Fire!” Yes, Beavis, the less-than-intellectual animated headbanger with a fire fetish would be very pleased now. That’s because California lawmakers have stepped back from efforts to prevent Tesla Chief Executive ElonMusk from his plans to sell handheld personal flamethrowers in the Golden State.
Please feel free to check your calendars. No, it is not April Fool’s Day. Flamethrowers could soon be coming to a backyard barbecue near you.
Remember that, in addition to leading Tesla and SpaceX, Musk, also runs the Boring Company, which is working to build travel tunnels under parts of Greater Los Angeles. Last December, Musk announced the sale of Boring Company hats to help finance the business’ tunneling efforts. He said that if 50,000 hats were sold, he would also start selling “The Boring Company Flamethrower,” and joked about how popular the device would be with the younger ones.
The Boring Company soon set up a website to sell the flamethrowers, and within a matter of days, all 20,000 of the available flamethrowers sold out at $500 each.
Needless to say, some lawmak- ers weren’t thrilled at the prospect of people running around, shooting f lames from their hips, and potentially adding to the workload of CalFire just as the traditional statewide fire season is getting underway.
Aformof a bill promoted byMiguel Santiago, a Democrat Assemblyman fromLos Angeles, that would require Boring Company flamethrowers to come with a safety warning label stalled out in the state legislature last Friday. Musk then went to Twitter the next day to say that the flamethrowers were about ready to ship, and that the Boring Company would soon start holding parties to pick up the throwers of flame and then start making deliveries.
So, the next time you are at someone’s house and they want to get the grill going, try not to act too surprised if instead of dousing the charcoal with lighter fluid, and striking a match, the grill master sets everything afire with a quick pull of a Boring old trigger. Contact Rex Crum at 408-278-3415.