In the midst of her painful recovery from recent foot surgery, Stan's sister Sosie has spent a great deal of time with her foot elevated. This has apparently forced more than the usual amount of blood to her head, causing her to think great thoughts and ponder the true meaning and purpose of even the simplest objects of her world.
Sosie and her sweet husband, Wm. O., enjoy a bottle from the neighborhood vineyard from time to time. These experienced grape enthusiasts know that white wines usually taste best in a lightly-chilled condition. For this reason, they keep a cylindrical device known as a "wine collar" at the ready, frozen in their deep freeze. When called upon, it slips neatly over an opened bottle, efficiently holding the product in its ideal state and at the ready, thereby avoiding any bothersome trips to the fridge and consequent waste of valuable time set aside for drinking.
This week, as Sosie contemplated a throbbing right foot badly in need of icing, she could have gone the conventional route and just grabbed a bag of frozen baby peas and balanced it on top of the ache. But with all that extra blood in her head, she was able to think clearly through the pain: "Aha! My wine collar!," she said in a moment of pure inspiration. "It will not only chill my aching foot, but it will stay in place while doing so."
And so, my friends, the rest is history.
Here, at right, is a pictorial study of the evolution of this Great Moment, which at last frees her hands to do as she wills . . . read a book, brush her hair, squeeze Wm.'s hand, and, we surely hope, lift a glass of chilled white in a toast to her ingenuity.
(Oh yes. Sosie sends along an additional tip. If you have a big foot. . . or a big owie, try a champagne chiller collar. It's just a smidge bigger.)
