Having picked a quart and a half of sour cherries, I was panicking
when I could not find my little made-in-Hong-Kong cherry pitter, the
kind that slips over two fingers and is operated with the thumb.

I thought, well this must be easy to find, only to discover that no
grocery or hardware or kitchen supply store (e.g. Surly Table) within
miles carries this any more.

And this is the canonical cherry pitter according to wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_pitter

All I can find are great hulking things made out of pot metal,
suitable for pitting olives, egg carton things that can pit four at a
time, etc. None are suitable for relatively tiny sour cherries.

What to do?