Swiss Army Knife

Rick Wall examined his Swiss army knife thoughtfully. "I've used it to cut loose threads off my slacks," he said. "I've opened wine bottles with it. Once I used a Swiss army knife to fix the phone when something got stuck inside it. "And I never go to a party without one--they're great for opening beer cans if the tab breaks off." Wall, 38, is a true fan of the Swiss army knife. He even shares the study in his Tierrasanta townhouse with the Swiss Army Knife Society. But it's no trouble--really.

This Monday is Labor Day, and America will celebrate with a three-day weekend. But why should this great nation's working people wait until Monday to exercise their right to life, liberty and the pursuit of a deserved cocktail? Ducking out early on Friday is an American tradition to rival baseball and capitalism. Given the travails of the 99%, it's your patriotic duty to honor your laboring forebears and hit the pub while the sun's still high today. Here are a few of L.A.'s canonical three-martini lunch bars and early-evening happy hours.

When Josh and Ada Cottrell were expecting their first child four years ago, they wanted to give their son a name that embodied their beliefs and stood for something attainable. They wanted their little guy to be known not so much as a dreamer but a doer. So the Sherman Oaks couple named their son … Macgyver. "We got a lot of flak for it," Ada says. "People would tell us, 'You're setting him up to fail.' But my husband is a 'MacGyver.' And if he's going to be anything like his daddy, which I'm sure he is, he's going to be the kind of guy who can put together a sink with a paper clip and some chewing gum and 'MacGyver' it, so it'll work."

Got a bottle of wine but no corkscrew? Fresh bluefish, but nothing to scale it with? How about that thread that's hanging from your jacket? All you need is a Swiss Army knife, or so say its U.S distributors. These handy, all-in-one tools are selling better than ever, thanks to some clever marketing and a back-to-basics nostalgia that has helped the Swiss Army knife remain popular in the midst of a nagging recession. That's good news for Forschner Group Inc.

Your article ("It's Come to This: Carry-On Steak," Feb. 19) gave me some great ideas for my next transcontinental flight. I have been flying between Australia and the U.S., and within the U.S., for many years and I have deplored the decline in domestic flight food services. From your story, it is even worse compared with my last visit more than a year ago. So I'll follow your advice and make up my own on-board snacks. I've been to some pretty neat delis around the Westside of L.A., so there's maybe the starting point.

I read your magazine quite frequently and find the articles interesting and well-written. I was especially interested in the "This Week's Thingamajigs" piece (by John M. Glionna, Nov. 14) and was excited to open up the magazine and see a mountain bike featured. Then I read the line at the top--"men's accessories"--and the text, and I was surprised. The last time I checked, these items were not gender-specific. I own and maintain a very nice mountain bike. I also recently purchased a Sony Vaio and installed Linux on it, will spend many an hour browsing Sharper Image and Brookstone catalogs, and always have a Swiss Army knife or a Ritchey tool with me. These featured items are great gadgets, but why stereotype?

A retired Swiss Army colonel is petitioning the Defense Ministry to keep the famous pocket knife issued to the Alpine nation's soldiers Swiss after reports that the next batch of 65,000 could be made in China. Alois Kessler, a lawyer who served as a reserve officer until 2004, began his campaign after hearing that World Trade Organization rules might mean the government has to consider bids from anywhere in the world for its new batch of army knives.

ELI ROTH'S SLASHER MARATHON For serious horror fans, Roth is pretty much Dane Cook with hacksaws, but his screening series of obscure gore-bucket flicks at the New Beverly (7165 W. Beverly Blvd.) is kind of awesome. DON'S MUSIC You might need a shoehorn to squeeze into this closet of a record shop (4873 Eagle Rock Blvd.), but once inside the rewards are many. ST. VINCENT COURT Forgo the plane fare and visit this alley hidden away off 7th Street (at Broadway) in downtown L.A.'s Jewelry District for a slice of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern hospitality.

It appears that the terrorists who attacked our country were able to get easy access to several commercial aircraft, all on the same day and at the same hour. How was this possible? The FAA should have improved airport and aircraft security years ago. Airport security personnel are paid low wages, and it looks like the result was visible. The safety of our country and aircraft passengers depends on taking serious steps toward modern, professional security at all of our airports. Bruce Nolte Pasadena Until Tuesday, my sixth-grader was not much interested in engineering or economics.

Day Out of Days Stories Sam Shepard Alfred A. Knopf: 282 pp., $25.95 You can construct a body out of the stories, poems and inside-the-head dialogues in Sam Shepard's "Day Out of Days" -- as in that game, Exquisite Corpse. You fold up the paper and each person draws a different part. When you unfold the paper, you've got a funky body. This is the reason people always use words like "brutal," "haunting" and "lean" to describe Shepard's work: Each part is howling out some unfinished business.

The Swiss army renewed a contract for Victorinox, Switzerland's largest maker of the iconic knife, to make pocket knives for its soldiers rather than a foreign manufacturer. Seven knife makers, some of them Swiss and others foreign, took part in bidding for the order starting in February, the government said on its website. The Swiss army will spend $1.2 million on 75,000 carbon-colored multifunction knives from Victorinox, the government announced.

ELI ROTH'S SLASHER MARATHON For serious horror fans, Roth is pretty much Dane Cook with hacksaws, but his screening series of obscure gore-bucket flicks at the New Beverly (7165 W. Beverly Blvd.) is kind of awesome. DON'S MUSIC You might need a shoehorn to squeeze into this closet of a record shop (4873 Eagle Rock Blvd.), but once inside the rewards are many. ST. VINCENT COURT Forgo the plane fare and visit this alley hidden away off 7th Street (at Broadway) in downtown L.A.'s Jewelry District for a slice of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern hospitality.

A retired Swiss Army colonel is petitioning the Defense Ministry to keep the famous pocket knife issued to the Alpine nation's soldiers Swiss after reports that the next batch of 65,000 could be made in China. Alois Kessler, a lawyer who served as a reserve officer until 2004, began his campaign after hearing that World Trade Organization rules might mean the government has to consider bids from anywhere in the world for its new batch of army knives.

A few things the pocketknife can do: Whittle, repair eyeglasses, scratch a first love's initials into a sycamore and, should the occasion arise, amputate your right arm. The pocketknife was not designed for a specific task, but for a single purpose: to be handy. Which may be why, despite assaults on its reputation, it thrives -- a symbol of simplicity and American self-reliance, even at this hyper-cautious, politically correct, broadband moment.

Your article ("It's Come to This: Carry-On Steak," Feb. 19) gave me some great ideas for my next transcontinental flight. I have been flying between Australia and the U.S., and within the U.S., for many years and I have deplored the decline in domestic flight food services. From your story, it is even worse compared with my last visit more than a year ago. So I'll follow your advice and make up my own on-board snacks. I've been to some pretty neat delis around the Westside of L.A., so there's maybe the starting point.

This Monday is Labor Day, and America will celebrate with a three-day weekend. But why should this great nation's working people wait until Monday to exercise their right to life, liberty and the pursuit of a deserved cocktail? Ducking out early on Friday is an American tradition to rival baseball and capitalism. Given the travails of the 99%, it's your patriotic duty to honor your laboring forebears and hit the pub while the sun's still high today. Here are a few of L.A.'s canonical three-martini lunch bars and early-evening happy hours.

When Josh and Ada Cottrell were expecting their first child four years ago, they wanted to give their son a name that embodied their beliefs and stood for something attainable. They wanted their little guy to be known not so much as a dreamer but a doer. So the Sherman Oaks couple named their son … Macgyver. "We got a lot of flak for it," Ada says. "People would tell us, 'You're setting him up to fail.' But my husband is a 'MacGyver.' And if he's going to be anything like his daddy, which I'm sure he is, he's going to be the kind of guy who can put together a sink with a paper clip and some chewing gum and 'MacGyver' it, so it'll work."

I know from personal experience that it would have been very, very easy for the terrorists to get knives onto the airplanes that attacked New York and Washington. Every time I pass through airport security and my hand luggage is X-rayed, I am surprised that the technicians say nothing about the Swiss Army knife in my briefcase (or small day-pack when I travel abroad). While I carry it for the utensils (tweezers, corkscrew, scissors, etc.), in the hands of a terrorist such a pocketknife would certainly be a deadly weapon.