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I'm off on a quest today! I'm searching for a better can opener. For some reason my wife has trouble making our regular can opener work. Go figure...
Actually, I couldn't use a can opener properly until I was in my late 30's. I blame my mother's teachings: 'Son, put the wheels over the lip of the can, squeeze the handles together as hard as you can, then turn the butterfly handle.' Sound's easy enough, and as a small child I could do it. But as I got older I could no longer turn the damn handle... and I'm pretty strong too! Especially my hands after a lifetime of playing guitar.
After a few years struggling I bought an electric can opener and that solved the problem of getting them open, but not the problem of 'why' I couldn't use the manual opener!
That lasted until the thing died 15 years later. At that time I had a girlfriend living with me, and she had brought a manual can opener to the relationship, which she could use with no difficulty. I still couldn't turn the damn butterfly handle. After much bitching and complaining, she decided she was going to figure out my problem... Says she; "Tell me what is going through your mind when you try to use the opener."
Me: "Well, I sort of play the tape of my mother teaching me how... "put the wheels over the lip of the can, squeeze the handles together as hard as you can, then turn the butterfly handle."
She: "OK... This time, put the wheels over the lip of the can, squeeze the handles together as hard as you can to puncture the can, THEN STOP SQUEEZING. JUST HOLD THEM GENTLY and then turn the butterfly handle." Worked every time after that. I was squeezing so hard that there was no way those wheels were going to turn!
Stitchawl
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