The man who sold sea monkeys and X-ray specs in the backs of the comic books that were long a staple of my misspent youth has died. I never ordered them, but I was always tempted. I did get a hypnocoin, but I couldn’t find any willing subjects.

He was definitely a marketing genius. I particularly liked this one, even better than pet rocks:

He sold invisible goldfish by guaranteeing that owners would never see them.

And just to show that it takes all kinds:

In a radically different sphere, von Braunhut’s hard right-wing beliefs drew notice. According to a 1996 Anti-Defamation League report, he belonged to the Ku Klux Klan and the Aryan Nations.

The Washington Post in 1988 published an article on him and his affiliations, adding that his relatives said he was Jewish. He repeatedly refused to discuss his beliefs on race or his own religious background with journalists, and in an interview Thursday his wife declined to comment on the subject.

He changed his name from Braunhut to Von Braunhut.

Weird.