But wait, there's more! RI road dubbed Ginsu Way

[April 04, 2009]  WARWICK, R.I. (AP) -- For more than 30 years Ginsu knives have been cutting through plump tomatoes, radiator hoses - even nails.

Now Rhode Island drivers can use the Ginsu to cut their commute times.

A stretch of road in Warwick is now called Ginsu Way, in honor of the men whose television commercials turned a cheap, serrated knife into a pop icon so famous it was parodied on "Saturday Night Live."

Ginsu Way connects two major roadways and passes the office of Ed Valenti, who began marketing the knives in 1978 with then-partner Barry Becher.

Valenti and Becher slapped a Japanese-sounding name on their knives and marketed them in now-famous TV spots. The ads used old-fashioned hawking - "But wait, there's more!" - and stunts such as using the knives to chop wood or saw through tin cans.

[Associated Press]

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