Grimly Curmudgeon wrote:

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember geoff saying
something like:

A true Alkie would have just taken a hammer to the neck

Or a sabre.

I always find a handy spoon handle or screwdriver to push the cork in.

If you have a screwdriver, you might have a spare screw somewhere. Drive
the screw into the cork, then use pliers or a claw hammer to pull the cork
out by the screw.