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

Entry: Nutcrackers - A8119280
Author: Trinculo - U2845676

Um. Hi.

Hi back!

Sorry it's been so long before you've had any reply, but this is always a slow time for reviewing.

This is a very christmassy entry - although I've never seen nutcrackers like this, they've always been boring old metal. Is there a particular place where these are used exclusively?

Ah! Bugger, I was going to comment on this but I forgot...

A Naim said the type of nutcracker you describe aren't very common in many parts of the world (here in the UK we mostly use ones that resemble pliers)... so it may be worth either making the entry more about nutcrackers in general or changing the title to reflect the type of nutcracker you are currently describing.

Overall though it's a good entry.

I'd also like to say that these 'character' nutcrackers used to scare me as a child and I still find them really creepy.

I've never actually cracked a nut with one of these, but I've seen them in stores at Christmas-time, intended as display items.

Perhaps they were/are used in Russia? Tchaikovsky must have got the idea somewhere.

There's a lot that could be said about nutcrackers that are not in the shape of a human as well. I can think of at least three distinct sorts:

A hollow hemisphere into which the nut is placed. A bolt is screwed in from the side and tighted to crack the nut.

A hinged diamond of metal, with two sides extended to make handles. The inside of the diamond is serrated to grip the nut.

A simple device with two identical pieces of metal hinged together at one end. This looks a bit like the letter A with a break in the cross bar.

I'm sure there are others.

This is a great start, are you still about T? With a little more tweaking could be a nice little Entry for the Edited Guide