2-For-Tuesday: Useful Pieces of Metal
- Only 18 uses? We’re sure you can think of more
- A little on the big and heavy side to carry in your wallet
- Might turn you into an annoying multi-tool nerd
- Legally meets TSA guidelines, but in practice, who knows what an agent might say?
Enough with the ninja thing.
This useful piece of metal is a shuriken aimed with lethal accuracy at all your little day-to-day obstacles. Bottlecaps, hex bolts, glasses screws, fruit peels, taped-up boxes: these enemies have no chance against this stealthy steel assassin silently stalking your billfold.
Unfortunately, they had to go and give it a cornball name like Wallet Ninja.
We thought we were past this. It’s not cute. It’s not cool. Calling yourself, or your product, a “ninja” is the 2014 equivalent of “as seen on TV”: stale, played-out, empty hype that makes us feel like you’re trying to rip us off.
Usually we appreciate the warning. In this case, though, the ninja silliness obscures the virtues of a pretty elegant little gizmo. Just a simple piece of metal, cut the right way, can do so much. And you can carry it in your wallet. It’s like a +4 Card of Many Things that you might find in a dungeon somewhere, and you’ll never have to dump it to make room for more treasure.
The one thing it can’t handle is an asshole TSA agent. There’s no such thing as “TSA approved” or “airline approved” gear of any kind. The TSA just makes rules. As the Wallet Ninja (that name, ugh) website says, “the only thing we can ensure is that our tools will fit inside of their guidelines.” But if the agent doesn’t like the look of that pointy metal card in your wallet, it’s up to you to decide whether to give up your (ahem) Wallet Ninja or miss your flight arguing over it. It’s not right, but it’s reality.
Otherwise, it’s a pretty useful piece of metal. Let’s just agree to never call it a “Wallet Ninja”. And if you’ve got the time, taking the train is nicer than flying anyway.
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2-For-Tuesday: Useful Pieces of Metal 97
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