I'm not saying Rigsby often comes up with half-baked ideas that are supposed to make him a fortune and never do, but he's the same guy who tried to start a fast-food franchise that featured burger-on-a-rope. 

"What is it this time?" I asked him. 

"I'm getting into the soft-drink game," he answered. 

"What do you know about soft drinks?" I asked again. 

"Plenty," he said. "I have an uncle who used to be in soft drinks." 

"For real?" 

"Sure. He invented a soft drink called `5Up.' " 

"What happened?" 

"It flopped, but my uncle didn't give up. He invented another drink and called it `6Up.' " 

"What happened, then?" 

"It flopped, too." 

"What did your uncle do after that?" 

"He gave up." 

I cautioned Rigsby that the Coke and Pepsi people just about have the soft-drink market cornered. Idea's time has come 

"You haven't heard my idea," Rigsby said. 

"Shoot." 

"You know how the soft-drink people are into drinks that don't have this or that?" Rigsby asked. 

"I mean there's caffeine-free drinks and sugar-free drinks and drinks that don't have saccharin because saccharin kills laboratory mice?" 

"Go on," I said. 

"Well, my soft drink is going to have it all. We're going to have caffeine and sugar and saccharin and NutraSweet and sodium and MSG, and all that good stuff people miss." 

"It won't work," I said. "People are too conscious today regarding what they put inside their bodies." 

"Not everybody," said Rigsby. 

"What do you mean?" 

"There's Mikey in the TV commercials," he went on. "He'll eat anything." 

"But who else?" Fed up with no-no's 

"People who don't mind taking a risk, that's who," said Rigsby. "There must be people out there who are fed up with all the don't-drink- this and don't-drink-that, who don't mind taking a risk now and then to get what they want. 

"I want people who will walk on the wild side, spit in the devil's eye and say, `Don't give me no plastic saddle, I want to feel the leather when I ride.' " 

I asked Rigsby if he had a name for his new product. 

"My uncle named it," said Rigsby. "It's a name he tried years ago that also flopped." 

"So what is it?" I asked. 

"Dr Salt," said Rigsby."You like it?" 

I didn't commit myself, but who knows? Maybe Rigsby really has something this time. 

A belt of all those things we like that we aren't supposed to enjoy anymore might do us all a world of good.