Letter to the Editor

No More Bottle Bashing on Trees

Banging on the tree is for birds!

But, the nails work. So help me God, they do.

I was really quite skeptical when the staff of The Daily Screw tossed me the nail challenge after the publication of the September 8 issue. The recalcitrant corks that refused to budge after hundreds of whacks against my back yard palm tree this last summer convinced me that the corkscrew IS the only way to go.

I was wrong! The nails do work. Admittedly, the extraction is not as easy as with a proper engine ... but, in a pinch it is better than knocking off the top of the bottle with a rock.

This successful experiment was carried out in Bangkok on September 10, 2003, using a locally produced hammer, neighborhood nails and a bottle of Wyndham Estate, Bin 22, Chardonnay from Australia. The cork was not a composite; it was stamped "CSA" on the upper side and "18" on the lower edge.

Alf Erickson, Thailand

Editor: What did you use for the third nail (to twist)?

Alf: A larger one? Yes .... but the trick is to make sure that the nails you use have fairly wide flat tops with very little camber on the underside as the twisting motion needs to be accompanied by a pulling motion. If there is camber on the underside you get very little "grip".

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What Movie?

Corkscrew Weaponry

The September 8 and 9 issues of The Daily Screw included corkscrews as murder weapons. Have you seen the movie in which Christian Slater playing Robert Boyd grabs a corkscrew from the counter and stabs a security guard twice in the chest, blocking the doorway as he bleeds to death in the bathroom?

Alf Erickson, Thailand

Alf: The movie is Very Bad Things starring Jon Favreau, Cameron Diaz, Daniel Stern, Jeremy Piven, Leland Orser, and Christian Slater. The comedy was released in 1998.

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Letter to the Editor

Still Golfing in England

Just one more Golf related corkscrew for the August collection:

Peter, London

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News Index

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