On Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:27:57 -0700, Steve Ackman
wrote:

In , on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 17:06:25
-0800, Michael Koblic, wrote:
I saw an interesting event on Jay Jeno last night: Memebrs of the five armed
services were trying to open a can of cranberry sauce using a Swiss army
knife. It was horrible. None of them seemed to have a clear idea how to use
the can opener attachment, in fact I am pretty sure some of them used the
wrong attachment. Four of them managed eventually at a cost of some injuries
and the cans were mangled.

It was Air Force who cut himself. "Anything to win,"
was his quip. Incidentally, he WAS the one to win the
race and the car... though for those who didn't see it,
he didn't win the car for himself, but for a randomly
selected member of his branch.

One failed to empty the can in the alloted time.

That was the whole point. The last one to empty the
contents was eliminated from the competition. By
definition the slowest didn't finish in time.

I wondered about the implications: Is this a reflection on general
population's unfamiliarity with a can opener? Is this a reflection on basic
training? Is it because the knife was *Swiss*? It cannot be because the
knife was *Army* as I believe it was the Army guy who failed. I hesitate to
cite stress affecting the performance of members of fighitng forces.

It wasn't the Army guy who failed because he was in
the footrace against the Air Force guy. I *think* it
was the Navy guy who failed.

Would members of the Special Forces have done better? One of the guys made a
creditable effort to rip the can open with his bare hands but with a minimum
result.

The guy using "his bare hands" had already opened the
can about 5/8 of the way around. He was using his hands
to try to bend the lid up and out of the way so he could
empty the cranberry sauce onto the plate. He's one who
did NOT cut himself, strangely enough. Pretty sure he
was first, and Army.

Is this something to be concerned about?

Maybe.

Do I have too much time on my hands?

Probably.

I laughed with incredulity, but come to think of it,
none of these guys has ever seen a C-ration. Guess
there's no reason for them to know how to operate a
field can opener.
The thing that gets me is the "safety" side cut can opener in the
kitchen drawer. Why is it safer to have a sharp edge of the can
surrounding the contents you are digging at, rather than on the metal
disk you are tossing into the trash; this assumes that you don't make
a habit of licking the lids clean before you toss them.
To my mind, they advertise these because they are made to a lower
standard of accuracy than the old top cut opener.
Gerry :-)}
London, Canada