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

Great entry! Just a minor grammatical and spelling suggestion:

Do use the knife, it's not intended as a novelty item. If it just sits there, trade it for a more usefull one.

shoule be rewritten as:

Do use the knife; it's not intended as a novelty item. If it just sits there, trade it for a more useful one.

(note that, yes, there is only one 'l' in useful)

Hope this helps!

Great Entry.
I think that it's Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, and the other spellings people have mentioned, but otherwise solid.

fixed it :D

I don't want to be awkward, but Swiss people I know who have been in the Army insist that the current official military-issue knife is NOT like the Swiss Army Knife sold all over the World. The military-issue knife is longer, thinner, has a hammered silver finish and has only two blades and no gadgets.
In practice, as the military insists that these knives are kept pristine, everyone just uses their private (commercial standard) Swiss Army Knife and keeps the 'official' knife apart for kit inspections.

Otherwise, a very interesting and informative article. Just one question - is it OK to carry a SAK through the security check at an airport? I used to argue, successfully, that it was a tool and not a weapon. But then I had my knife confiscated.

I believe "the tool that could" is a reference to the childrens book "the little steam engine that could". I'd leave it in.

I have carried a Swiss army knife through airport inspections a large number of times. But then I usually kept it in a bag of knitting, which seems to spread a "harmless" aura on all kinds of things, including 12 inch pointed steel implements....
Azara

Nice Entry.

I have carried a pocket knife for most of my life. In fact, a day hardly goes by when I don't use my knife several times.

When airport security was first beefed up, I used to take the trouble of burying my knife or knives in my checked luggage. Then I just started putting them my carry-on luggage after I accidentally left one in there and it passed the x-ray check. These days, I usually have three or four things with blades in my cary-on luggage, folding tool sets, spare knife, my pocket knife, and ,usually, something else that just happens to have a blade on it.

One time, I had some sewing to do during a flight and there was no problem when I used my Swiss army knife in flight. That was on a short flight inside the US though. I wouldn't dream of even trying to leave knives in my carry-on if I were flying a more secure airline (such as El Al) for an international flight.

Barton

The only problem with "the tool that could" and the reference to "the little engine that could" children's book is that it is a very American reference - I read most of the English children's classics as a child, and I never came across this book or heard it referred to until I started hanging out with Americans on Usenet. And since h2g2 generally follows the British side of the British/American usage divide, I think it might be better to leave it out.
Azara

Although British, I personally have no problem with the title; in fact it was one of the things that attracted me to the article. At least the title didn't make reference to (US TV series) McGyver...

I am not actually familiar with the little steam engine story. I had assumed the title to be a reference to the Martin Amis short story 'The Little Puppy That Could'. (Although Amis is, admittedly, one of those Brits who spend a lot of time hanging out with Americans.)

Apologies if this response appears twice. The system crashed just as I tried to send off my first version

Well done! This entry's going to become part of the Edited Guide!

This entry has been accepted and will shortly be winging its way to a subeditor for what few finishing touches may be required, and then you'll be emailed when it hits the Front Page!

Keep up the good work!

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Congratulations!

woohoo!! i'm so happy to hear this

Congratulations! Or perhaps "congradulations", like Americans tend to pronounce it. I can't imagine why...

Swiss Army Knife Not Enough
Swiss voters have shed a sliver of their staunchly defended neutrality, authorising soldiers to carry arms on peace missions abroad.

the title is just fine as it stands.
i think you should try looking at it in a far less political way of viewing things. language, pure words dude. i can't help my interpretation, or use of english(american?) language doesn't sound or look like, or seems to come from a manchester inhabitant. i'm sorry i'm dutch :P dutch tv shows a lot of american crap, a lot of british crap and some good stuff. unlike the germans (ha!) we subtitle tv material and movies instead of dubbing them over with native language like the french and german television do. it's my second language ok! and i like to think i'm fairly good at expressing myself in english. so don't start givin me crap about it being american or english, it's schuremish that you read! :P i thought it was a nice title "the swiss army knife the tool that could" and i still think so. if anyone dares to change that i WILL come lookin for ya! |-)

I know this has been recommended, but oh well...did you mention that the knives come in different colours even though the original is red?