I drink wine, cider and sometimes beer, but not normally spirits. However, I was recently given a bottle of Williams Pear, conisting of a pear grown in a bottle and covered in fire-water. The neck of the bottle will not take anyything fatter than a knitting needle. When I have consumed the fire-water, how can I get at the pear? Is this a known problem?

Breaking the bottle would risk getting shards of glass in the fruit and poking at the pear with a knitting needle will probably not do much good.

On Sun, 7 Jan 2024 12:36:17 -0800 (PST), Tony Smith
<agsmith578688@gmail.com> wrote:

>I drink wine, cider and sometimes beer, but not normally spirits. However, I was recently given a bottle of Williams Pear, conisting of a pear grown in a bottle and covered in fire-water. The neck of the bottle will not take anyything fatter than a knitting needle. When I have consumed the fire-water, how can I get at the pear? Is this a known problem?
>
>Breaking the bottle would risk getting shards of glass in the fruit and poking at the pear with a knitting needle will probably not do much good.

Suggestions I have seen range from using fondue forks to pare (sorry!)
off slices of fruit and keep the bottle intact to using a glass cutter
around the circumference and tapping the bottle to separate the halves
and extract the pear intact. Any use?

PS. I see you are still using Google Groups and you won't be able to
do this after mid-February. Have you tried signing up for novaBBS?
https://www.novabbs.com/aus+uk/thread.php?group=uk.media.radio.archers

Nick

On 07/01/2024 20:36, Tony Smith wrote:
> I drink wine, cider and sometimes beer, but not normally spirits. However, I was recently given a bottle of Williams Pear, conisting of a pear grown in a bottle and covered in fire-water. The neck of the bottle will not take anyything fatter than a knitting needle. When I have consumed the fire-water, how can I get at the pear? Is this a known problem?
>
> Breaking the bottle would risk getting shards of glass in the fruit and poking at the pear with a knitting needle will probably not do much good.

Tie some string around the bottle, say 1" from the bottom. Turn the
bottle upside-down, soak the string in meths and light it. After a few
seconds, plunge the bottle into a couple of inches of cold water and it
will crack around where the string is.

Viola - a large fiddle!

This was from a "Boy's Own Book Of How To Make Annoying Vase-like Gifts
For Your Mother" or somesuch, except with the string nearer the top.

I've done it a few times in the dim distant and it works. Practise first.

--
Cheers
Clive

On Sunday 7 January 2024 at 22:28:15 UTC, Nick Odell wrote:

>
> PS. I see you are still using Google Groups and you won't be able to
> do this after mid-February. Have you tried signing up for novaBBS?
> https://www.novabbs.com/aus+uk/thread.php?group=uk.media.radio.archers

I did so,, but am misrembering my password and cannot immediately find any I've forgotten my password" option.

Tony Smith wrote:

> On Sunday 7 January 2024 at 22:28:15 UTC, Nick Odell wrote:

>>
>> PS. I see you are still using Google Groups and you won't be able to
>> do this after mid-February. Have you tried signing up for novaBBS?
>> https://www.novabbs.com/aus+uk/thread.php?group=uk.media.radio.archers

> I did so,, but am misrembering my password and cannot immediately find any I've forgotten my password" option.

I can't find that option either.

I'd suggest one of three things.

1-Make a new account with an new email address (they won't
let you use the same email address again while it is still on
their files(DAMHIKT)) and use a new password and write it down.

2-Send an email to admin -at- i2pn2.org and ask them how
to restore a forgotten password.

3-Send an email to admin -at- i2pn2.org and ask them to
delete your email address from their records so you may
create your account over again. Oops! now you know how I
know (1) above!

They seem jolly nice people and I'm sure they will try to help.

Nick

On 17-Jan-24 19:45, nick wrote:
> Tony Smith wrote:
>
>> On Sunday 7 January 2024 at 22:28:15 UTC, Nick Odell wrote:
>
>>>
>>> PS. I see you are still using Google Groups and you won't be able to
>>> do this after mid-February. Have you tried signing up for novaBBS?
>>> https://www.novabbs.com/aus+uk/thread.php?group=uk.media.radio.archers
>
>> I did so,, but am misrembering my password and cannot immediately find
>> any I've forgotten my password" option.
>
> I can't find that option either.
>
> I'd suggest one of three things.
>
> 1-Make a new account with an new email address (they won't
> let you use the same email address again while it is still on
> their files(DAMHIKT)) and use a new password and write it down.

But But But!
You're told you must _never_ write your passwords down anywhere since
that would breach security.
You're supposed to commit them to memory - all 287 of them.

--
Sam Plusnet

Sam Plusnet <not@home.com> wrote:
> On 17-Jan-24 19:45, nick wrote:
>> Tony Smith wrote:
>>
>>> On Sunday 7 January 2024 at 22:28:15 UTC, Nick Odell wrote:
>>
>>>>
>>>> PS. I see you are still using Google Groups and you won't be able to
>>>> do this after mid-February. Have you tried signing up for novaBBS?
>>>> https://www.novabbs.com/aus+uk/thread.php?group=uk.media.radio.archers
>>
>>> I did so,, but am misrembering my password and cannot immediately find
>>> any I've forgotten my password" option.
>>
>> I can't find that option either.
>>
>> I'd suggest one of three things.
>>
>> 1-Make a new account with an new email address (they won't
>> let you use the same email address again while it is still on
>> their files(DAMHIKT)) and use a new password and write it down.
>
> But But But!
> You're told you must _never_ write your passwords down anywhere since
> that would breach security.
> You're supposed to commit them to memory - all 287 of them.
>
>

Haven’t you been told - you are to practice writing in miniature and
reversed? You then write all your passwords down on your forehead in
reverse. You carry a mirror around with you and if you ever forget your
passwords for summat or other, you hold the mirror up to your forehead and
read it off. That way you also comply with the requirement of keeping all
your passwords in your head so to speak.

--
Toodle Pip, Mike McMillan

nick wrote:

>
> I'd suggest one of three things.

> 1-Make a new account with an new email address (they won't
> let you use the same email address again while it is still on
> their files(DAMHIKT)) and use a new password and write it down.

> 2-Send an email to admin -at- i2pn2.org and ask them how
> to restore a forgotten password.

> 3-Send an email to admin -at- i2pn2.org and ask them to
> delete your email address from their records so you may
> create your account over again. Oops! now you know how I
> know (1) above!

> They seem jolly nice people and I'm sure they will try to help.

> Nick

I had already done (1) but might yet take up your suggestion (2)

tonysmith <agsmith578688@gmail.com> wrote:
> nick wrote:
>
>>
>> I'd suggest one of three things.
>
>> 1-Make a new account with an new email address (they won't
>> let you use the same email address again while it is still on
>> their files(DAMHIKT)) and use a new password and write it down.
>
>> 2-Send an email to admin -at- i2pn2.org and ask them how
>> to restore a forgotten password.
>
>> 3-Send an email to admin -at- i2pn2.org and ask them to
>> delete your email address from their records so you may
>> create your account over again. Oops! now you know how I
>> know (1) above!
>
>> They seem jolly nice people and I'm sure they will try to help.
>
>> Nick
>
> I had already done (1) but might yet take up your suggestion (2)
>

In the early 1960’s this happened: One Sunday post-dinner pep talk at
school, we were told that it had been noted that pears seemed to be
disappearing from the tree in the school garden and this was not approved
of at all - in fact ‘If I see you taking pears from the tree, there will be
trouble’. The teacher who stated this was a real pedant for correct use of
the English Tongue. A few days later, we happened to have a ‘locker
inspection’ (would such things be allowed these days!?) at that time, I was
found to have a few pears in my locker (wot me? Scrump???!!!) and said
teacher enquired of me: ‘What did I say in the dining room on Sunday? To
which I replied ‘If I see you taking pears from the tree’ and I emphasised
the ‘See’ as obviously he hadn’t observed my scrumping at all. He looked at
me, paused then grinned and moved on.

--
Toodle Pip, Mike McMillan

On 07/01/2024 22:36, Tony Smith wrote:
> I drink wine, cider and sometimes beer, but not normally spirits. However, I was recently given a bottle of Williams Pear, conisting of a pear grown in a bottle and covered in fire-water. The neck of the bottle will not take anyything fatter than a knitting needle. When I have consumed the fire-water, how can I get at the pear? Is this a known problem?
>
> Breaking the bottle would risk getting shards of glass in the fruit and poking at the pear with a knitting needle will probably not do much good.

There are some replies here which might be helpful:
https://forums.egullet.org/topic/147074-getting-the-fruit-back-out-of-the-bottle/ The
diamond glass cutter suggestion seems the most feasible to me, but what do I know.

I thought I was a victim of an April Fool's Day joke when I was told, by a genuine Swiss
person who owned pear orchards, how the pears get in the bottles in the first place.
--
Yassas,
Anne, Exceptionally Traditionally-built Hellerat

On Mon, 22 Jan 2024 17:41:45 +0200, Hellerat <Hellerat@mail.com>
wrote:

>On 07/01/2024 22:36, Tony Smith wrote:
>> I drink wine, cider and sometimes beer, but not normally spirits. However, I was recently given a bottle of Williams Pear, conisting of a pear grown in a bottle and covered in fire-water. The neck of the bottle will not take anyything fatter than a knitting needle. When I have consumed the fire-water, how can I get at the pear? Is this a known problem?
>>
>> Breaking the bottle would risk getting shards of glass in the fruit and poking at the pear with a knitting needle will probably not do much good.
>
>There are some replies here which might be helpful:
>https://forums.egullet.org/topic/147074-getting-the-fruit-back-out-of-the-bottle/ The
>diamond glass cutter suggestion seems the most feasible to me, but what do I know.
>
>I thought I was a victim of an April Fool's Day joke when I was told, by a genuine Swiss
>person who owned pear orchards, how the pears get in the bottles in the first place.

Did it all sound a bit too much like the Swiss Spaghetti Hoax of 1957?

Nick