Swiss Army Knife

10-08-23 00 / episode: 206

Script

"The Swiss army knife.

Now, that's a cool invention when I was a boy, I had one and I loved it.

Interestingly enough.

There's not one Swiss army knife.

There's a whole bunch of different models.

Some are very simple and they have a few attachments and others are very complex.

The Swiss army knife is a folding pocket knife but it has more than a knife blade on it.

It has other tools attached to it like a screwdriver or sometimes a cork screw or maybe a can opener.

It has quite a few things on it.

I even had one that had a spoon and fork on it.

Of all things.

They're fairly expensive.

They're made in Switzerland by the Victorian Ox company when they first started being made in 18 91.

But there were knives that were similar to that before the first Swiss army knife.

They were gone by o other names.

And what happened was this company came along and said, we'll make it and we'll make it better and cheaper and we'll sell it to the Swiss Army.

And eventually I think the Swiss Army did buy it.

Although not at first, they're really useful items.

If you need that sort of thing, it's a multipurpose tool or many tools in one in North America.

A lot of people, sort of equate Swiss army knife with boy scout.

Ok.

If you're a boy, boy scout, you probably have a Swiss army knife because boy scouts are always prepared, they can do anything.

They have many talents and skills and this knife will help them do all those things.

However, my son is a boy scout and he doesn't have a Swiss army knife.

In fact, the, the knife that the boy scouts promote is quite a bit different.

It's a very simple one blade knife and it doesn't fold.

I've forgotten the name, but it's quite simple.

Anyway, Swiss army knives are often used in English as a metaphor.

If you come across something else that has many purposes or many functions, then you might call it the Swiss army knife of blah, blah, blah.

For instance, one of my friends was a chef and he told me that the chef's primary tool is a knife, the, the cutting knife and that is a Swiss army knife of the kitchen.

Well, that's enough for now.

Thanks for listening."