Woman arrested at Epcot gate with guns in a diaper bag

Shades said:

I’m with you on the minimalism. I wonder what kind of life requires the daily use of a pocket knife.

Same here. I honestly don't know if I have ever even used or held a pocket knife in my life. My dad and grandfather always carry/carried them everywhere we went, and in fact my dad had an issue a few years back when he feigned shock that Cedar Point security wouldn't let him in with his. Other than watching my grandfather clean under his fingernails with his, I don't think I ever have seen either of them use it for anything you can't do with a car key.

Shades said:

So is the “little more” that you carry your pocket knife?

I’m with you on the minimalism. I wonder what kind of life requires the daily use of a pocket knife.

It's not that our lives require us to use the pocket knife every day so much as we can't predict which days we are going to use it so we just carry it all the time. Also as a woman often going paces alone I like to have options other than screaming and running if I become a target of some sort.

RideMan said:

I’m trying to figure out what kind of life doesn’t demand a need for a good pocketknife...I carry mine (a Victorinox Spartan) anywhere it isn’t expressly forbidden. Amazingly useful; everyone should have one.

—Dave Althoff, Jr.

I'm 43, and I can't remember a moment when I said..."damnit I wish I had a pocketknife".

I miss the gift, because it meant a lot personally.

That said, I'm a dad and a home-owner that has played the part of part-time plumber, mechanic, carpenter, landscaper, roofer, electrician, you name it...

OK I will admit there has been times when the corkscrew to open a wine-bottle would have come in super-handy. That part is true.

Now, are we sure that the guns and weed didn’t belong to the toddler? I mean, they were coming from Stone Mountain, Georgia.

I guess it's because I am a tinkerer, and a hardware guy at heart. I mean, the small blade and the can opener are the only tools I need to field strip a VHS VCR, which used to be a fairly common job function for me. Incidentally, I carry the Spartan rather than the Tinker (which is a Spartan but with a #2 Philips screwdriver instead of a corkscrew) because I can turn most screws with the can opener blade, but I have been in situations where I was the only person in the room who could uncork a bottle of wine. As Paisley pointed out it isn't that you need it all the time, but it's useful often enough to bother carrying it.

Some time ago I took the bait and answered a Quora question about this; my answer is HERE.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.