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A New Love: Jacques Pépin's Fast Food
Talking Him Into It - Feeding The Guy
Another Change, and Two Summer Shortcakes
« Debate On Cooking For Two | Main | Finding Good Wine »
What on earth is this? Why have you never seen one before? Why is there a Junior Achievement sticker on it? And how is it that Georgia can always open those jars so much faster than you can?
Welcome to the Jar Opener. All during my childhood I pulled it out of the kitchen drawer and used it anytime I needed to open something. At friends' houses I'd have to bang the jar lid against the counter or run it under hot water, but at my house it was as simple as opening a piece of tupperware. The only problem with the jar opener was that it was the only one of it's kind - at least the only one we could get our hands on. My grandmother also had one (she had given my mother the second one she had), but no one else we knew had one, and it they weren't available for sale anywhere. Apparently whatever company had made them had stopped or gone out of business. We combed garage sales and second-hand stores but to no avail. I eventually inherited the jar opener that belonged to my grandmother, but there aren't enough to share with my siblings, and I live in fear of the day that I lose it. Various companies make different kinds of jar openers, like this one and this one, but they're all complicated and bulky with multiple parts or electrical mechanisms. None of them have the simplicity and convenience of this little doodad, and I'll bet none of them work as well either. So if you see one of these lying around, grab it (and if you find out why there's a Junior Achievement sticker on it, let me know)!
Posted by georgia to Kitchen and Cooking on March 4, 2006 07:11 PM | permalink | Email this post
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Hello Georgia (and readers),
I was just thinking about jar openers the other day. I am a TA for an introductory physics course and I was discussing torque with my students. I used an example of trying to open the jars of my favorite spanish style green olives that I can find here in the states (The brand is GOYA and I find them at the whole foods next to UCLA and they are scrumptious! They still have their pit, so the meat is nice and firm. I crave them just thinking about them.) Anyways, I told my students that I can never open these jars and so I always have to get my hunky boyfriend to to it for me. I explained to them that if I had a lever arm in the form of a jar opener (when I mentioned the words jar opener I got more that a few blank stares and I had to explain what it was) then the whimpy maximum force that I was able to apply would be enough to open my favorite olives and I would have no use for my boyfriend and I could get rid of him. (I somehow always end up involuntarily making dorky jokes such as this...) It got a laugh out of my poor bored students, and helped them visualize torque. It also made me think about why more people didn't use jar openers and why I did not have one. Then I realized that if I had one I would have no excuse to get my boyfriend to flex his muscles on command! That would be sad for me... So I decided that I was better off sans jar opener, or if I ever do find one, I must keep it hidden and use it only when I am home alone... So I offer my own experience as a possible clue to why this wonderful little contraption has not caught on as one might think it should. It is nice to have little things that your guy can do for you, and if he looks sexy while doing it but does not know it... even better.
As an after note, the women in my family seem to like to do things the hard way. It is a challenge see which tecnique works best at each jar opening event. I remember you coming to my house one day and mentioning the jar opener as we banged a very stubborn lid against the edge of the sink, but as the lid proved over and over that it would not budge, I remember you joining in on the fun, and offering up many bizzare tips of your own. It was my mother, you, me and my little sister, and we all wanted to get our hands on that jar and be the one with the right trick to open it! It was bonding in a frenzy! I don't remember if we ever got it open...
Lea
Posted by: Lea Fredrickson at March 18, 2006 04:55 PM
I just inherited one of these from my Grandmother! Found a picture of yours on google after someone suggested it was a jar opener (we were totally stumped). We are in Nova Scotia, Canada. We've never seen another one either. :-)
Posted by: Lorraine at September 20, 2006 03:36 PM
