On 5/8/2012 2:11 PM, merryb wrote:
> On May 8, 3:40 pm, > wrote:
>>
>> This is true. Sometimes I don't stop. I'm one of those guys that is
>> reluctant to stop once I start a task. My daughter's boy friend had a
>> pretty nasty finger cut. He's 17 and works as a cook. It freaked us out
>> to find a chief's knife in her room. Evidently, he carries his knife to
>> work every day. That kid might a a pretty good future as a pro. I guess
>> pros have to have some battle scars to show off.
>
> Some asshat line cook will happily steal it, especially if it's a good
> knife.

It didn't look like a great knife but that's the way it is with tools. I
used to be a printer and was quite attached to my ink knife. An ink
knife is as important to a printer as a chef's knife is to a cook.

> A chef I once worked for swore that ground black pepper works great on
> cuts. He suggested it after I took off a third of my index fingernail
> while peeling a bulb of taro root. It hurt like hell to begin with, so
> I couldn't say if it helped or not!

I'll have to try that one day. Hopefully, he wasn't trying to mess you
up. I remember on my first day of work, the head of the print shop
showed me a trick: he dabbed a bit of goo that's used on low spots of
the printer blanket on the bottom of my forearm. Nothing happened for a
few seconds and then it got a little warm. Then it got warmer. Then it
got warmer. All of a sudden it got hot and then alarmingly so. He was
grabbing my arm and I winched and pulled away. He quickly grabbed a
cotton pad, dipped it in the printer's water reservoir and wiped my
forearm and the pain vanished. Ha ha, workshop initiations are fun!

OTOH, I worked at a printshop where the old geezer working the press was
missing more than a reasonable amount of fingerage. I'm grateful to that
guy cause it made me realize that I had to change professions.