Sometimes, good inventions come in simple packages. And sometimes good people redefine their life’s goals to change the lives of many.Jose Gomez-Marquez at Massachusetts Institute of Technology was frustrated at the lack of money for expensive medical equipment in developing nations. People were dying because, for example, IV drip machinery could cost $5,000. For some hospitals that is the budget for the entire emergency room. Then he thought, “Toys have amazing mechanical parts. To get a part made from scratch could cost hundreds of dollars but I can go to a market and find toys very cheaply.” So he took the trigger of a toy gun apart and attached it to an IV drip bag and controlled the drip flow. Then he found that Lego bricks can be assembled to make tiny conduits for medicines for lab testing. “I couldn’t build them a clinic but I can provide them with a Lego kit for them to make their own devices,” he said. And a thing called a nebulizer could be made out of bicycle pumps.His thinking did not stop there. Patients were reluctant or forgetful to take pills prescribed by field hospitals or to take diabetes tests regularly. So Gomez-Martinez talked to the patients and found out one of their main worries was affording to keep their cell phones charged. He joined the two ideas and came up with hidden code that is only revealed when the pill is taken or the test strip is used. The code is dialed into the cell phone and the user gets 10 cents of credit.In Africa, Mr. Femi Akinde was frustrated that the Internet access to services and goods we now take for granted had not reached most of the continent yet. But he realized there was a middle step that could help. Rural people in Africa often travel huge distances to obtain or try to obtain services ranging from car repair, medical help, accommodation, parts for machinery and even food. If local people could find out, before they travel (often for days on foot) that the part they needed was at a garage 150 miles away, they could get better use of their time and improve their quality of their life. So he started SlimTrade. This service links retailers with one another, giving retailers and services a mutual interest in serving customers. Like the old Mr. Macy telling customers that Macy’s is out of stock but Gimbels has it, Mr. Akinde’s service allows retailers, airlines, shops and services to be able to help customers network for the services and goods they need. One phone call can link a customer with a garage, who links to a motel, who links to a pharmacy, who links to a hardware store. One call, one trip, good economy.Meanwhile, in Guatemala, 20 percent of the population has no access to electricity. Manuel Aguilar, a former investment banker from New York City (who got fed up making rich people richer) had a eureka moment. He founded Quetsol, an energy company offering a simple solution to the lack of rural electricity. The company makes kits, which consists of a battery, an LED light bulb and a small solar panel. So far it has sold 2,000 units. The battery also offers a socket that allows people to charge their cell phones, something that was hardly easy when a house doesn’t have electricity. “People used to have to walk two hours to charge their phones and pay heavily for it,” said Mr. Aguilar, who wasn’t through improving people’s lives. Quetsol then marketed a 30-watt battery that will allow people to power a computer. “It will give families Internet access and education for their kids.” And how can people afford that new device? Mr. Aguilar did a deal with a large bank to make each unit cost only $13 a month, which is about what an average family would spend on candles.Good ideas do come from individuals. Just as Jobs and Wozniak did all those years ago in a garage (Apple computers), good people with a goal and imagination can change the world, one step at a time. Peter Riva, formerly of Amenia Union, lives in New Mexico.
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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