h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Lots of cans now have ring pulls on the lid, well they do in the UK.

Here most of those contain beer.

I work in a kitchen, and we have this really old manual can opener. I don't know how to describe it too well, but it's basically a metal post about a foot long attatched to the edge of a counter, and it has a handle on the end. You put the can to be opened against the post, lift the handle, and drop it on to the can. If you do it right, the sharp little metal thing on the post makes a hole in the lid. You then turn the handle, and it's supposed to open the can. But it doesn't work very well. You usually have to bang the post down onto the can several times, and it tends to splatter. I have ended up with ketchup or anchovy juice all over myself several times after using it.

I used to work at a sandwich place, and we had one just like that. I wouldn't use it for about two months after I started, because I was afraid of it. (Why? I don't know.) I didn't think it was that hard to use except when I had to open little cans (like Mandirin oranges) with it.

mandarin orange sandwiches?

Reminds me of an orange stilton I bought last year. It is a dessert cheese. I decided that I like the regular stilton best - especially with a glass of port!

Actually, I was afraid to use the thing, too. It looks like it could be dangerous, and I am definitely accident-prone.

No Dude, they went on the Chinese Chicken Salad. Why they call it Chinese is beyond me, probably just because of the oranges. The cans were really pretty and very small.

I've never had silton. It sounds really good though.

Gidget-I got to where I could use it on big cans like olives, but I was always nervous about those little ones. I would have liked to use a hand-held can opener, but we didn't have one.

I suppose they were Mandarin vs. Cantonese oranges. Maybe the chickens were Chinese?

I don't know if they were Chinese or not, but they sure were messy. Before I quit I was the slicer for our store, so I had to slice all the meat and tomatos and onions. The chicken was covered in pepper so the slicer was covered in pepper by the time I was done. The chicken wasn't as bad as the pastrami, or the tomatos. Pastrami is harder to clean off, and after slicing tomatos, I looked like I had just killed somebody with an ax. I liked slicing though, because I could go at my own pace and didn't have to deal with the customers. Don't get me wrong, I like people as much as the next guy, but the sandwich place I worked at was "upscale fast-food" and located in a wealthy part of town and the customers were really rude. And stupid. They would say stuff like "I eat here because it's so much healthier than other fast food places", while they're ordering a sandwich with two different kinds of salami, two different kinds of cheese, and buns drenched in garlic butter.

I like to freak my son out by trying the new kibble before I give it to the dog....

Which side of the pond would that be? The side with the electric can openers? I don't think I've ever even seen an electric can, never mind opened one!

We don't have electricity in cans here either. I imagine it would be very useful on camping trips, for example.

JTG

I still prefer the really rather old fasioned can opner.
the one you stab into the edge of the can, and then move round the can through frantic lifting and dropping of the handle its the only type of can opner i've ever found capible of opening all* cans; even those with the 'retangular' shaped nature Of course, my Father has to be different, he still uses a knife to open many cans.... Though more and more cans now, even in the backwaters of the UK, seem to have ring pulls now

Imagine! How sad that a generation may grow up never knowing the caveman satisfaction of stabbing a can of beens! How could anything that comes out of a ring-pull can ever taste as good?

JTG

Too true, too true. Using the 'stabing' form of can openers, gives you teh satisfaction that you've had to 'work' to get your beans, or whatever the can might contain... I still prefer them, though they are getting harder to find in the shops...

On the other hand, I don't miss the cut fingers.

Have you tried camping and hiking outfitters? People who take non-stabbing can openers camping deserve to get lost in the woods; they're missing the point... ahem.

Never thought of camping/hiking outfitters, I'll try to remember that for when I need a new can opner I've never cut myself with a tin opner, or in teh act of opening a can/removing the lid Guess I've been lucky