On Mon, 12 May 2008 00:01:59 -0400, cw wrote:

In article ,
"The Ranger" wrote:

My daughter-units were using our church key to open several
bottles of soda today. Daughter-unit Alpha was really intrigued
by it -- the design, functionality, everything about it -- and
asked me why it was called a "church key." I hated to admit
it... But I didn't have an answer. Gooja didn't help narrow
down that bit of trivia.

Why is it called a church key?

Many thanks.

The Ranger

Wikipedia (you could look it up too) says:

There is sparse, and often contradictory, documentation as to the origin of
the term "Church Key", though most agree the phrase is a sarcastic euphemism,
as the opener was obviously designed to access beer, and not churches.
One explanation for the term "Church Key" lends its origin an almost mythic
significance; in Medieval Europe, monks and nobility were the only brewers.
Lagering cellars in the monasteries were locked, as the monks guarded the
secrets to their craft. The monks carried keys to these lagering cellars on
their cinch, or belt. It may have been this key from which the "Church Key"
opener got its name.

cw in mi

Thank You !!!!
Bout time someone actually answered the question without name calling
and/or being an asshole. I remember when the newsgroups were the ONLY
source of information and people were much more helpful and less
nasty. That was before the web existed. After wasting my time
reading numerous name calling posts which took longer to type than to
simply answer the damn question, we finally got an answer. Sure, we
can all spend hours searching the web for answers, and reading reams
and reams of useless trash, but my time is more valuable than that.
If i was doing a research paper, the web is great, but for a simple
answer to a simple question, there is usenet. It irritates me to no
end when people answer questions on newsgroups by telling the asker to
use google, or posting a pile of web urls. When I come to usenet, I
came to usenet because that's what usenet is about. A place where
people share information. It's too bad the new generation can not
realize that, and just use the newsgroups to be rude and nasty. I did
add a few more names to my killfiles as a result of this thread.