Smooth Edge Can Opener

Mangled Can

And then I realized it might be time for a new can opener... 

While organizing the recyclables or some similar activity, I came across a severely mangled can. After a bit of incredulous inspection, I came to speculate that our sitter on the recent occasion of an evening dinner out for my wife's thirtieth birthday had either had difficulty finding the appropriate utensil to open a can to make a meal, or was completely inept at doing so.

Not too long after, I received a text message from my wife while at work with the request to get a new can opener. So--I guess I'll give the sitter a break and come to the conclusion that we no longer had an acceptable can opener in our summer cottage, or our previously used wall opener had maxed out the frustration level (it's oddly located in the kitchen doorway).

Smooth Edge Can Opener

Anyway, when my wife asks me to pick up something, I generally aim to impress. She doesn't always give me the satisfaction of feeling that I had accomplished anything, but I shop critically and usually end up getting something different than whatever we had before or different than what may have been expected. In this case, instead of buying a simple hand-operated can opener I discovered a product at the Webster, New York Wegmans location that produces a cleaved-off can top in a way I'd never seen before--so I had to get it.

This "smooth edge can opener" by Oxo is really quite something. The night I brought it home and performed my first demonstration, my dad exclaimed something like, "That's really amazing!" The wife did not particularly agree, though perhaps she's softening to it...