Excellent Wall Street Journal A-Hed in Monday’s edition:

Mousetraps, Maybe, but Can You Build a Better Paper Clip?

U.S. Manufacturers Churn Out Billions Each Year; Hoping a New Model Clicks

LINCOLNSHIRE, Ill.—The basic paper clip, a simple twist of steel wire typically retailing for about a penny, has dominated its market for more than a century.

Now ACCO Brands Corp., based in this Chicago suburb and dubbing itself a “global powerhouse of leading office-products brands,” hopes Americans will embrace a snazzier clip costing more than 16 times as much.

Dummkopfs, right? Not so fast, says a brandinista at ACCO:

“This is our reinvention of the paper clip,” says Carol Lucarelli, a brand manager at ACCO, as she hands a visitor a sheaf of paper held together by stainless steel clamps called Klix in shiny hues of red, purple, green, blue and “classic silver.” Klix, resembling small hair barrettes, make a snapping sound when closed. “It’s very fun,” says Ms. Lucarelli. “It’s this clickiness.”

Yeah, we got your clickiness right here.

Meanwhile, fun facts to know & tell about paper clips:

• Most of the 11 billion paper clips sold each year in the U.S. are made domestically

• Since 1994, import tariffs up to 127% have protected U.S. clip makers

• 11 billion paper clips equals 35 per American each year

• Supplemental uses: cleaning fingernails, hanging Christmas ornaments, cleaning pipes, unclogging tubes of glue

Campaign Outsider clip ‘n’ save prediction: Klix are for kids.