Church key anecdote

[Laurence Horn]

At 11:44 AM -0600 2/25/05, Mullins, Bill wrote:
>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

At 11:40 or so in this display is a CK much like the one I ended up
buying to replace the several CKs we have that were all in hiding at
the time.  (The ones with the three-dimensional bottle opener on the
other side of the triangle are also the most useful device I've come
across for prying up the metal lids of certain imported jars, like
the ones mole poblano comes in; the flat kind of bottle openers,
several of which are pictured here, are totally useless for that
task.)  What makes this particular variant a curiosity (to me) is
that printed on the white plastic connector (on the obverse side from
a very handy refrigerator magnet) are block letters at each end
reading BOTTLES and CANS respectively.  In the old days, no labels
were needed.  Next, there will be a set of instructions for use.
("Place protruding flange of triangular device against lid of can,
apply pressure at a 90 degree angle...")

Larry