Genius' gang likes cement, salsa-tortilla chips

TORONTO -- The world certainly could live without the intermittent windshield wiper, the invention at the heart of "Flash of Genius."

But on those mildly rainy days when you don't need the wipers flapping at full force, that intermittent option makes driving a lot easier.

"Flash of Genius" chronicles the decades-long legal battles mounted by Bob Kearns (Greg Kinnear), an engineer who sued automakers for swiping his wiper idea.

Kinnear and his co-stars -- Lauren Graham, who plays Kearns' wife, and Alan Alda, who plays an attorney for the inventor -- along with "Flash of Genius" director Marc Abraham shared thoughts on other big and small innovations while promoting the movie at the Toronto International Film Festival.

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Greg Kinnear: I thought the fact that someone had finally nailed salsa-flavored tortilla chips was kind of a breakthrough. Although I'm not sure. I've tried a few. I'm not sure the execution is flawless at this point, but conceptually, they're on to something big with that. ...

I'm no good with gadgets, but I do like them. I got one of those Flips recently, the Flip video things, which is the little hundred-dollar device. It's a video recorder. It doesn't do great video recording, but it allows you to grab little snapshots at any given time, then plug it into your computer. ... It's very lightweight: Pull it out, shoot my two kids running in the backyard, click it, computer, and there it is. Fantastic.

I'm intrigued by the BlackBerry. All things Apple. It's a good era to be in if you're into gadgets and ideas and innovations, because they're coming fast and furious. Maybe they always were, but it seems like it's a little accelerated now, the technological aspects of things.

Lauren Graham: I have very curly hair, so it would be some hair-curling, straightening, blow-drying thing. Growing up, you had crappy, like, gel that was crunchy. Now what's hilarious is they come out with a new blow dryer every six months. It has diamonds in it! No, it has sandpaper! You're like, what? And I grew up without any of that.

I grew up in a family that was very resistant. My dad is very practical about things like that, technology, and we didn't have a VCR for a long time. He didn't understand why you would need this. We didn't have a microwave. I still don't have a microwave.

There's like an inherent suspicion. Why do you need that? That's what my grandmother said to me regarding the iPod. She's 88. I was trying to explain to her all the things it did. You could take it in the car, and she said, "Well, why would you need all that music with you all the time?" And I thought, I don't know. I can't answer that. It's such a good point. Why do you need thousands of songs with you?

I started transferring all my CDs onto the computer, and then the computer got stolen, and I had to start all over again. I'm thinking, I'll go through all the CDs, and I don't want to download the whole thing, so I'm picking songs, and before I know it, I'll be 55.

Alan Alda: I was just thinking yesterday, I was looking out the window here, and I was thinking, people are always wondering what were groundbreaking inventions, and I think cement was. When you think about it, a couple of thousand years ago, the Romans discovered cement. Without cement, things would fall apart. You would just have to pile stones on top of one another, and the building, in a good wind, would just fall over. We wouldn't need elevators without cement. You couldn't go up anywhere. You'd have to walk. Cement is a really important thing. You're probably sorry you asked me that question.

You know what Mel Brooks said? In "The 2,000-Year-Old Man"? The greatest invention of mankind was liquid Prell.

Marc Abraham: The thing I loved about the intermittent windshield wiper is you could completely live without them. Therefore, you had to dismiss the idea that it was so important, and then obviously, the movie isn't about that at all. Unlike brakes, which would be kind of a rough deal.

There was a scene we cut out, there was a line we cut, when Bob calls his wife to say, hey, the trial starts tomorrow. The actual lead-in to that was, there's a beep, and he goes, "Answering machine. Good idea."

So answering machines. They became and still are indispensable. An answering device. You can't imagine living without them, and yet when we grew up it was like, an answering machine? What is that?

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)