Swiss Army knives fascinate me. Eschewing the notion of tool specialization that has made the fortune of kitchen gadget companies the world over, the Swiss Army company seems to believe that they can pack any tool a human might possibly need into one portable implement. And they do their best to try to manifest this belief into their legendary Swiss Army Knife.
I own a classic Swiss Army knife, given to me as a conference tchotke years ago at MacWorld. My knife is a basic one, with a knife and a nail file on one side, a Philips screwdriver and a tiny pair of scissors on the other, and a small plastic toothpick that I am wont to play with bemusedly, every time I find the knife ensemble again after losing it for the n'th time.
The only thing really missing for me in my own knife is a spoon and fork. Putting much more than that into the piece would be overkill and would make it hard to carry. Right?
Apparently not. Enter the ultimate postmodern implement, the Wenger Giant Swiss Army Knife v1.0 (yes they actually version it).
Conjuring up images of brawny Australians saying "THIS is a knife!", the Wenger is in an implement category all on its own. It says, "to heck with all your modernist ultra-specialization bureaucratic claptrap.... when a guy needs a tool, he needs it now and I've got it for him, right here". All 85 of them.
For $1200.
Ultimate postmodern tool or ultimate he-man status toy? And more importantly, how do you carry that thing in a pocket?
There's the question, isn't it?
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