[HN Gopher] Unwanted Corkpull
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Unwanted Corkpull
Author : norescue
Score : 54 points
Date : 2021-12-29 20:18 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (reallifemag.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (reallifemag.com)
| errcorrectcode wrote:
| Burrowing into minutia: "The Rabbit"-type cork pullers are far
| easier and faster. These are gear-assisted, spiral pullers
| obviating the need for elbow grease. Stubborn corks still need
| the two prongs-type to coax them out (or in).
| Pxtl wrote:
| Oddly I think the author mentions he (she?) has a few of those
| and despite their aesthetic loathing of the Oxo one, they find
| it more efficient than the traditional ones. Or at least I
| assume that's what they're talking about when mentioning their
| other corkscrews.
|
| As for Oxo itself, I find the brand frustrating.
|
| The author rightly asserts that Oxo devices are utterly
| hideous... But on the other hand, Oxo is one of the few brands
| that is both consistently available and consistently high
| quality.
|
| Now that shopping is a minefield of unusably defective low-
| quality goods from anonymous Chinese ephemeral marks, reputable
| built-for-life brands with a wide spectrum of products like Oxo
| are critical to survival.
|
| An Oxo kitchen utensil may be bulbous and black, but it won't
| be rusty, bent, cracked, tarnished, peeling, oily, or
| poisonous.
| throwaway984393 wrote:
| Prior generations didn't fear rust, bending or tarnishing,
| because they were taught how to care for those items. And if
| they were damaged, they'd get repaired! I fear that by making
| the world more idiot-proof we're inviting more idiots.
| errcorrectcode wrote:
| Oxo, like any large company, has hit-or-miss designs. Their
| lettuce spinner is adequate. I wish they made their storage
| containers in glass.
|
| Low quality products are infiltrating markets, including
| Amazon, at an alarming rate. Take a small category as a
| signal: 3d printer filament vacuum bags. There are hundreds,
| if not thousands, of nearly-identical listings for what can
| best be described as a glorified ZipLoc, 2 mil storage bag
| with a piece of tape over a hole to be used as a "valve." I
| left an honest review about how horrible, overpriced, and
| useless this product was. The seller then had the audacity to
| email me directly 3x to bribe me to delete the review.
| narag wrote:
| _Burrowing into minutia: "The Rabbit"-type cork pullers are far
| easier and faster._
|
| I've seen faster. In a luxury restaurant. It was just a long
| curved awl with a T handle. No idea how difficult it is to
| master or how good it is for problem corks. But fast? Sure.
|
| Never seen one in shops.
|
| Edit: curved I mean a soft S shape. No screw.
| throwaway984393 wrote:
| Cork pullers for expensive wine are just two metal flat
| prongs that slide down the sides, and you twist the bottle
| and pull. It keeps the cork intact so that old deteriorated
| cork doesn't fall into the wine. Both the most minimal and
| effective uncorker, and of course nobody owns one except
| chefs, sommeliers and rich folk
| narag wrote:
| IIRC it was just one metal pointy piece. It's no mistery
| how it pulled the cork: the S shape. Probably driving it in
| the cork is more difficult... anyway it was just a second.
| [deleted]
| cafard wrote:
| If it's any comfort, corkscrews do break. We went from three to
| one over the course of a couple of years, and the one remaining
| is not wholly satisfactory. (The part that pushes against the
| bottle rim is a little askew--it hasn't failed yet, but may in a
| while.) Perhaps I could start setting money aside for its
| replacement--a hegemonic fund.
|
| And might I complain about the adjective "famous" attached to an
| essay by an author I've never heard of, and suspect most of the
| HN readership has never heard of? I'd settle for "noted", I
| guess.
| lesquivemeau wrote:
| I'm curious about which type of corkscrew you're using. I never
| heard of one breaking as you open a bottle (in France it's
| really common to have a Creuset-type corkscrew at home). I
| personally use the one on my Swiss army knife and I'm pretty
| confident it won't break. Maybe you'd want to get one of those,
| they're pretty cheap and can outlive you easily if you don't
| lose it.
|
| edit: seems like you're using the lever ("the part that pushes
| against the bottle rim") to open the bottle. You may want to
| ditch it altogether: just hold the bottle between your legs and
| pull on the corkscrew to extract the cork.
| cafard wrote:
| The ones that failed were of the sort with levers on the
| side, geared to the shaft so that the levers rise as the
| screw goes into the cork. One then presses down on the levers
| to pull out the screw.
| lesquivemeau wrote:
| Oh i see, those "de Gaulle" corkscrew aren't great IMHO,
| but as i never use them i didn't know they were this
| fragile.
| cafard wrote:
| Actually, they took 20 or 25 years to fail.
| rodelrod wrote:
| Once you reach a certain level of wealth that is not uncommon in
| developed countries, owning physical stuff is a burden. Not only
| corkscrews: furniture, appliances, a car, a house. You get
| regular reminders of this when you've spent your entire adult
| life moving from tiny apartment to tiny apartment in European
| city centers.
|
| Unless I'm intimate with someone's present, pressing needs, the
| only gift I'll dare to buy another adult will be food, drinks, or
| experiences.
|
| If you need a corkscrew, the only one you'll ever need is a
| double-stepped waiters corkscrew (I own a Creuset [0] which is
| fine but there's plenty of cheaper alternatives). They're small,
| last forever and work for every tight or crumbling cork you might
| have to deal with.
|
| I guess that if you buy very expensive wines and like to drink
| alone, you may find some use in a fancy contraption I've seen
| used in Burgundy this summer which allows you to pour wine while
| keeping the cork in the bottle [1]. It is expensive, high
| maintenance and fiddly.
|
| Everything in between, I really don't see the point.
|
| [0] https://www.lecreuset.fr/fr_FR/p/wt-110-sommelier-double-
| lev...
|
| [1] https://www.coravin.fr/
| hughrr wrote:
| I've got a Swiss Army knife that's twenty years older than me.
| Does the job well and many other ones too and will outlive me
| no doubt.
|
| As for fancy contraptions, these can be avoided by drinking the
| whole bottle when you open it, preferably with someone
| interesting at hand to share it! Wine is awful stuff without
| good company.
| bikingbismuth wrote:
| I have a Coravin, and I have found it to be pretty low
| maintenance (other than having to buy replacement argon
| canisters).
|
| I bought it when my wife was pregnant and have continued to use
| it with white wines (I'm the only one who drinks white in my
| social group).
| rodelrod wrote:
| Nice to hear about your experience, sounds like a good use
| case. I briefly considered it to allow better food pairings
| in small dinners. The marginal benefit wouldn't justify the
| cost of ownership for me, though.
| leephillips wrote:
| I'm with you on the waiter's friend. No need for any weird
| contraptions there.
| Fnoord wrote:
| I don't understand French but I got one which resembles your
| first one (or should I say the zeroth..). Works pretty well.
| You can also just use a swiss army knife, if you don't often
| open a bottle. Because, in theory, you would use the swiss army
| knife for a whole lot of other things, saving space and money.
| In a tiny house I would prefer a swiss army knife.
|
| The solution to not getting stuff I don't want is simple (even
| though I could appreciate Tony Chocolonely chocolate, or a
| Steam voucher). I tell people to not bother, give our young
| kids some more instead. At a certain age in life, if you
| want/need something you buy it, and you don't what (what I call
| in Dutch) prullaria (anymore). Boring? Difficult? No problem,
| my kids are easier to serve. Although I do remove (sometimes
| temporarily) and eventually resell stuff of theirs. Even there,
| I believe less is more and its easier to clean and sort, too.
| But buying allows them to try things out.
| toomanybeersies wrote:
| You don't even need a Swiss Army Knife, if you don't drink a
| lot of corked wine, a shoe will do just fine [1].
|
| Seriously though, Swiss Army Knives are the epitome of "jack
| of all trades, master of none". It's so much better to use
| the proper tool for the job. I've had the same $10 sommelier
| knife longer than I've ever owned a Swiss Army Knife (since
| my wine knife stays in the kitchen drawer).
|
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXihX13xjqQ
| kurthr wrote:
| As a wine drinker, I agree with all of this... even though I
| use the Rabbit I got years ago. I find it convenient, but
| others do not.
|
| One comment on Coravin from a professional (I've only used it a
| couple of times) is that it works well on some corks and not on
| others, particularly older ones. They can leak significantly,
| which makes it useless for your expensive old cab.
|
| Also, temperature stability becomes VERY critical as any change
| causes pressure in the bottle to change, and air to ex-change!
| antiterra wrote:
| > the only one you'll ever need is a double-stepped waiters
| corkscrew
|
| > Everything in between, I really don't see the point.
|
| The point is some people have things like arthritis or other
| challenges that benefit from greater mechanical advantage.
| marcosdumay wrote:
| Well, I'm yet to see any model that actually gives you
| greater mechanical leverage.
|
| But there are models that have a two-handed operation that
| doesn't require the tiny bit of skill the GP's one need to
| not break the cork.
| Symbiote wrote:
| I used a lever-type corkscrew to open about 40 bottles of
| wine at a large party last year. It was really easy,
| although I can't remember it well enough to consider
| someone with arthritis.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=476wTEKDOVc (1 minute).
| rodelrod wrote:
| That would be a good reason. None of the many people I've
| seen getting these for Christmas over the years had
| arthritis. What they did all have was a friend or relative
| with a social obligation to buy some crap for them and a
| zillion other people in a crowded mall on the 24th afternoon.
| kentonv wrote:
| Well, the reason Oxo has been so successful is that it
| turns out that if you make things easier to hold and use,
| it is not only better for people with arthritis, but it
| turns out almost everyone else likes it better too. You may
| not _need_ it, but why would you not prefer an easier grip,
| all else being equal?
|
| But I do agree this isn't a good gift item unless you
| specifically know the person needs a new corkscrew. I hate
| having redundant stuff.
| convolvatron wrote:
| i'm pretty certain that most of OXOs sales are due to the
| fact that many grocery stores just have one little
| section of kitchen tools and only carry that brand.
|
| they are ugly, not particularly ergonomic and age
| horribly.
| throwaway55421 wrote:
| Eh? I don't agree with this at all.
|
| If you have a "certain level of wealth", why would you move
| from tiny apartment to tiny apartment? You have no need to sell
| your previous one, or just no need to move. Also, why are they
| tiny?
|
| It sounds like you're talking about being nomadic on a middle
| to high income.
|
| Most wealthy people I know own big houses in places like
| Kensington or Hampstead or whatever the equivalent is. They
| might also have a pied a terre or three, sure, but they're not
| constantly moving.
| rodelrod wrote:
| Moving a lot served me as a recurring reminder of the burden
| of stuff, but it's not the only way that it materializes.
|
| Stuff takes space, stuff adds clutter, some stuff requires
| administrative overhead, most stuff requires maintenance.
|
| I prefer tiny apartments in central neighbourhoods than
| bigger ones in the suburbs. Stuff enters into that equation.
| I can't afford a big house in Kensington. So OK, if I could
| afford a big house in Kensington plus a couple of pied-a-
| terre, _maybe_ I wouldn 't worry so much about stuff. I could
| have an extra room for a corkscrew collection and hired hands
| to deal with it. Stuff staff.
|
| I added the "certain level of wealth" qualifier to make it
| clear that I didn't mean to claim that being burdened by
| stuff is a universal experience. It's a problem tied to
| abundance, like obesity and information overload. This level
| of wealth is much lower than what most people would consider
| "wealthy".
| lostmsu wrote:
| I think the point was that moving from tiny apartment to tiny
| apartment happened before he became wealthy, so he compares
| now, where he has to maintain all that stuff (car, house,
| furniture in all rooms, yard) vs before when he had maybe a
| sofa, a desk, and a laptop.
| lostmsu wrote:
| I had an ingeniously evil thought in that regard, that if you
| don't like somebody, and you have money to spend, you could
| anonymously buy a few items of low-quality on Amazon to the
| person's address and name as gifts.
|
| Most people, even relatively well-off ones will keep free
| stuff. And will be in pain either because they will actually
| continue using it, and get annoyed by its low quality, or stop
| using it, but leave it around as junk because of the instinct
| to hoard.
| sandworm101 wrote:
| Every corkscrew I own is unwanted. I don't even drink. It has
| been years since I ever needed to use one in my own home. (The
| cooking wine I use is screw-top.) That said, I own at least six
| of things. Why? They are attached to other objects that I
| actually use. Two are on swiss army knives I've owned for
| decades. Two came packaged with other products (sets of kitchen
| tools). The others are attached to my can openers, which I do
| use.
|
| Question: Has anyone here ever used the can opener on a swiss
| army knife? It is there. It is slow but does work. For all my
| corkscrews, many times I've found myself without a can-opener and
| had to resort to the swiss army knife.
| hughrr wrote:
| I use my Swiss army knife regularly, as alluded to elsewhere in
| this thread. It has supplanted a few other tools in an effort
| to minimise the amount of crap I have. The one I own is 20
| years older than me and is a hand me down from my father. One
| of the most useful things I own.
|
| As for opening cans, I use it for that after the last can
| opener I had fell to bits about a decade ago. Takes a bit of
| practice but you can chunk through a can in about 10 seconds
| reliably. It also opens cans that the can openers won't grip
| properly.
|
| I've used it to build a couple of PCs with as well as the only
| tool.
|
| As for not drinking, most of the wine I get gifted goes into a
| pot and is used for cooking. I'll only drink it if there's
| someone interesting to drink it with, which is sadly not
| happening that often these days.
| Avshalom wrote:
| I've been using the can opener on my leatherman for two or
| three years now exclusively... my old can opener broke and
| every time I think to buy a new one in a store I see the price
| of a good one and think "well fuck that", even though yes
| obviously I way more than that on all sorts of stuff regularly.
|
| Works fine, I'm pretty handy with it, not much slower than the
| standard clamp and crank style.
|
| https://www.leatherman.com/wave-10.html
| geoduck14 wrote:
| >Question: Has anyone here ever used the can opener on a swiss
| army knife?
|
| I have. I used it to cut shoelaces. I immediately regretted the
| decision.
| leephillips wrote:
| I have, while camping and when at home when the normal can
| opener was broken. It's not too slow once you get the knack.
| jessaustin wrote:
| previous discussion:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28703414
| jsharpe wrote:
| There's some rumination in this article on how difficult it is to
| get rid of gifts.
|
| I find Marie Kondo's advice on this very practical:
| https://konmari.com/gifts-that-dont-spark-joy/
|
| "The true purpose of a present is to be received."
|
| "... You don't have to keep using the gift forever. If you try
| using the item and decide that it still doesn't suit you, thank
| it for the joy it brought when you first received it - and bid it
| farewell. The true purpose of a present is to be received,
| because gifts are a means of conveying someone's feelings for
| you. When viewed from this perspective, there is no need to feel
| guilty about parting with a gift that ultimately doesn't spark
| joy."
| h2odragon wrote:
| "Long form" is great but this is longer than that. Into the realm
| of pointless persiflage.
|
| If I understand correctly, the problem is the existence of 3
| corkscrews in their drawer? And the big one works best... So
| throw out the _other_ two? Or at least relegate them to deep
| storage?
|
| This might not even _be_ a problem, with proper propitiation of
| Anoia.
|
| https://discworld.fandom.com/wiki/Anoia
| DnDGrognard wrote:
| And why would you not have the multiple corkscrews in different
| places i.e. one next /with the drinks cabinet/ tray or one in
| the dining room
|
| I have a folding waiters corkscrew included in my work and home
| took kit and a multi tool with a corkscrew in my laptop bag.
| cardiffspaceman wrote:
| I used to have a corkscrew in the glove box of my car.
|
| It was a different time.
| jrmg wrote:
| _So throw out the other two? Or at least relegate them to deep
| storage?_
|
| The implications of _these questions_ are exactly what the
| essay is about.
| samwillis wrote:
| It may arguably be a little too long and could have done with a
| little more editing. But sitting here on my sofa between
| Christmas and New Year with an open tin of Quality Street and
| too many empty wrappers next to me, this is exactly the type of
| content I like to find on HN at this time.
| notreallyserio wrote:
| The essay isn't about the corkscrew, although it is mentioned
| many times, nor the junk drawer. It's about the burden of stuff
| in general and some reasons many of us feel the burden.
| borepop wrote:
| Right but the ostensible hook for the reader's interest is
| the moderately banal design of the corkscrew. Which, to
| anyone with any sense of perspective, is not a particularly
| compelling problem.
|
| Indeed, I would rather have a banal corkscrew than have to
| read a totally banal essay. At least the corkscrew does not
| falsely purport to impart wisdom to me.
| QuelqueChose wrote:
| I can understand how what I personally find engaging can be
| banal and unnecessary to others, but with this case I can't
| think of anything that would serve as a more fitting
| opening metaphor for the entire essay. The chunky wine
| opener that serves its intended purpose and was a gift, but
| lays taking up an incongruent amount of space for its
| intended use invites some observation on all the other
| unused-but-still-owned stuff that we're forced to either
| continue possessing or send along to the trash.
|
| I guess some (not implying you) might consider the
| observations somewhat shallow, and maybe they would find
| the solution to be "simple". Just throw more stuff out.
| selfsimilar wrote:
| The corkscrew is the 'every-man' item that allows for
| reflection on modern desires in tension. It's about the
| corkscrew the same way that [the] summer's day to which thee I
| shall compare is still slightly actually about the summer day.
| geoduck14 wrote:
| I highly recommend a rotation kitchen stand [0]. We have one,
| and it holds a bunch of random kitchen utensils
|
| [0]
| https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=ifdz4x...
| antiterra wrote:
| The article overall resonates, but the derision for what the
| author admits is an incredibly enabling piece of accessible
| hardware reads like a jerk complaining about the aesthetics of
| accessible parking spaces.
| 4gotunameagain wrote:
| I perceived it as a trip through her mental process, which
| first despised the object but then came to appreciate its
| existence
| wiredfool wrote:
| Kipple drives out non kipple.
| throwaway984393 wrote:
| _" I know it's not entirely my fault, this material glut that
| accumulates in drifts and droves, turning my apartment, and
| probably yours, into a way station for wayward objects._"
|
| Your apartment, your life, your fault. Lots of people take
| "reduce, reuse, recycle" extremely seriously: generating very
| little trash, only owning things they need, not replacing them
| until they're broken, and then getting a used replacement. And in
| fact, if you just got rid of that junk by giving it to Goodwill
| or a Free Stuff Facebook group, you'd be helping reduce the
| consumption of new goods, too. Having it sit in that drawer is
| the second worst thing you could do.
| jspash wrote:
| theodric wrote:
| s5300 wrote:
| NoGravitas wrote:
| I like this author's reflections on sustainability, supply
| chains, and labor, but I don't find their class-anxiety over
| their cork-pull being middlebrow very relatable.
|
| My first impulse is "give it to a thrift store", which is where I
| buy all of my clothing. But then I think about how poorly-
| organized and unpredictable the housewares department at the
| thrift store is, and wonder if, once it was donated, if anyone
| would ever buy it. We do a bad job at recycling in our society,
| but we do an even worse job at reusing. Imagine if reuse were
| something we were really dedicated to: thrift stores would pool
| their inventories and rationalize their stocking in a way that
| would make the nearest thrift store a viable choice when you want
| a specific common item, and not just when you're browsing to see
| what you can find.
| klyrs wrote:
| This article is a counterpoint to any call to reducing
| consumption, where people get downright angry or at least
| dismiss it as completely impossible/ridiculous. Our culture is
| based on consumption, and it seems that people cannot imagine a
| life without a junk drawer full of unused corkscrews.
| jrmg wrote:
| The addresses this:
|
| _For its refusal to signify, its bulk, and its sheer
| unnecessariness in my already-overstuffed drawer, I've been
| ready to ditch this corkpull for months. During the pandemic,
| though, it's even more impossible than usual to get rid of
| things. After a year inside with all my objects, clutter has
| taken on a malevolent unruliness, tote bags procreating inside
| other tote bags and external hard drives with unknown contents
| taunting from the back of the closet. Boxes and paper grocery
| bags pile up along the hallway, full of things to be gotten rid
| of. But the thrift stores and donation drop-offs are still
| closed, or have limited hours. And you know that most of those
| things don't get sold._
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(page generated 2021-12-30 23:01 UTC)