Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Jelly Jar Mojo

Have you ever pulled the jelly jar from the fridge and grunted and strained to get the lid off?  Only to find out that the lid is stuck worse than an elephant in quicksand.  That's when you know that Mongo has been there.  Mongo is what we call the mysteriously powerful critter that sneaks in and super-tightens your jar lids.  You never know when he'll strike.

Jelly jar and my tools.
There wasn't much to choose from for lunch the other day, so I decided on a PB&J.  Bread-check, peanut butter-check, and then I reach for the jelly.  It's just ordinary grape jelly in an ordinary jar.  That is it used to be ordinary.  Now it it's been Mongo-tized.

After some grunting and straining it's still not budging, so I pull out my strap wrench.  This handy-dandy gadget didn't come from any fancy kitchen store.  Nope, hubby got it from the plumber who was working on the toilets at work.  He asked the guy where he could buy one.  Plumber said it's part of the kit and they're disposable.  Well, it got disposed of into hubby's hands, and then into mine.  It usually works like a charm but not this time, all because Mongo snuck in and put his mojo on my jelly jar.  So I went old school and whacked it with the kitchen scissors (Mom's method for loosening stubborn jar lids).  Strange, but it works.  Then I popped the strap wrench back on and... success.  For a moment there I thought I was going to need the jaws of life just to open the jelly.  

Does Mongo ever wreak havoc on your jars?

7 comments:

  1. Oh, yeah - I've suffered from jar Mongo many times. Hubby always turns the jar upside down and hits it on the counter and then it opens easily. But I say that's only because I've been struggling with it for 30 minutes before he shows up to rescue the jar from certain death ;)

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  2. Linda,

    Yes, I have Mongo visit many times. My trick is that I drown him and then hit him.

    I put the jar in very hot water and then bang it on the counter. It almost always works for me.

    I love PB&J sandwiches:~)

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  3. I have three jar tricks... I put the lid under hot water, wham the edges of the lid against the counter and use one of those rubber jar opener thingies... OR I just call my teenager LOL!

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  4. Mongo is much more prevalent and has many more talents than is prbably commonly known.

    Mongo also steals single socks, leaves empty plates in the fridge, sets the new t.p. roll on top of the old one, empties out the nail polish remover bottles and nibbles the corners of chocolates. Hmmmn.

    xoxo

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  5. Talon- Thanks for coming by and sharing your Mongo experience. If hubby is handy, he just opens it for me, and yeah, I've already got it warmed up for him.

    Sara- I'd not heard of the hot water/banging method. It takes too long to get really hot water at the sink. I have no patience. Thanks for visiting.

    Katherine- You are the second person to suggest hot water and banging the jar. Must be something too that. My thought is the hot water causes the jar lid to expand or dissolves the sugary stuff that stuck it. Thanks for your visit.

    Jannie- Your comment reminds me of the cartoon where there were the invisible characters of "Ida Know" and "Not Me". They're everywhere. Thanks for stopping by.

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  6. Mongo is obviously universal - it's alive and well in UK, too. But have a care with the scissor whacking trick - blows can blunt your shears! May I suggest some less delicate utensil be use? I've got an old, different kind of jar opener that does the whacking to perfection, though it will only open very small jar or bottle lids the way it was intended! LOL

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  7. He has a way of being everywhere at once, putting his mojo out there on unsuspecting folks.

    When I whack with the scissors, I'm using the handle, so the blades should be OK. Thanks for stopping by.

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