church key 'beer-can opener' is obsolete

[Barbara Need]

>Why would one need an opener for a beer can? Today they are all self-opening,
>and have been for decades.

But the same device can be used to open juice cans, and the last time
I checked (which was not THAT recently, maybe a year ago), you still
get a quart or so of fruit juice in cans with no other opening.
Without the pointed end of a church key, I use a can opener (the
rotary variety) to create the pouring hole and air in-take hole.

>If people under 40 do not know the term, it seems likely that this is because
>the expression has died out because the word is no longer necessary.

Except that the item still exists. I just asked two graduate students
(and another, I think he was an undergrad), if they knew what a
church key was. The two graduate students didn't know what the term
referred to, the other said it was a "very simple key" that opens
anything, "like a skeleton key". However, when I drew a very crude
picture of one (with both ends), both of the graduate students
recognized the item--like Larry's son, they know the denotatum, even
if they don't know the word (the undergrad had left before I was done
with my artistic efforts).

Barbara