Church key anecdote

[Jonathan Lighter]

In my experience it can be either a can- or a bottle-opener, so long as the substance to be got at is some form of beer.

JL


Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: Church key anecdote
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I was just going to ask that: wadn't it more than one kind of a church
key? In order to be defined as a church key, one end of the tool had to
have a doodad that punched a triangular hole into the end of a beer
can. The other end of the tool could be "blank," so to speak, or it
could have one of at least three kinds of crown-cap openers. There was
a kind of roughly circular or triangular shape that lifted off the cap
without obviously damaging it, leaving the impression that the cap
could be re-cycled. (It couldn't be.) Then there was a kind of hook-ish
shape that tended to slip off the crown cap, making it a pain to use,
and which definitely bent the crown cap out of shape. Then there was a
third shape that's even harder to describe, but I'm sure that the more
mature of us know what I mean. This also bent the cap out of shape.

-Wilson

(Just heard a trash-TV guest say about her ex, "He comes across as all
swah-VAY and everything.")

On Feb 25, 2005, at 12:44 PM, Mullins, Bill wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: "Mullins, Bill"
> Subject: Re: Church key anecdote
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> Current ebay lot # 6157169131
> has 15 different church keys, of various sizes and shapes.
> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?
> ViewItem&category=566&item=61571691
> 31&rd=1
>


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