Our new secret weapon sucks

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 02:17:00 +0000

Revelations that the United States Army is developing small, hovering reconnaissance drones with a Massachusetts company that's developed robots for home vacuum-cleaning got my attention like an unexpected whiff of Mr. Clean with Febreze.

Years back, my ex-wife and I ran a house-cleaning service in Hoboken, N.J., called American Maid. We not only owned the company, we were the maids. So I've been around long enough to know that a revelation (particularly one involving the military and vacuum cleaners) can only mean one thing: There's more dirt here than meets the eye.

I dressed quickly. Plying contacts that I've cultivated over the years in the murky world of janitorial equipment and supplies, I managed to secure a meeting with Saul A. Jenks, CEO and president of JaniTech, a rival company that's also vying to secure lucrative deals with the Pentagon.

It was about midday. I ushered myself into Jenks' very modest (but, I have to say, spotless) office in some outlying suburb off I-78. He was just getting up to leave.

"Lunch?" he asked good-naturedly as he rushed past me out the door.

Salon.com > Mark Leyner

Our new secret weapon sucks