a·pos·tro·phe (əˈpästrəfē) n
the punctuation mark (‘) used to show where letters are omitted from a word, to mark the possessive, and sometimes to form the plural of numbers, letters, and symbols.
In short, an apostrophe is often used to make words short. However, the Apostrophe Orange Peeler by Gabriele Chiave for Alessi will have none of that. It falls far short of having an obvious use when first seen on its own. However, struggle for a bit and you will divine its usage (a picture of a peeled orange certainly helps). As cloaked in purpose as this kitchen gadget may be, when uncovered, actually using this device probably doesn’t make short work out of anything. (Which is not necessarily a bad thing–a row of these resting on my kitchen counter would look pretty cool–like a line of musical notes.)
The ergonomic apostrophe-shaped (aha!) steel object is designed for comfort in peeling and features a hooked end to assist in the task. Since “everyone knows that to peel an orange you need to cut the peel along meridians and parallels,” this should have been obvious from the start, right?
***UPDATE 9/28/24*** Link above has been apostrophe’d into non-existence. Punctuation lives on however with Alessi Apostrophe Orange Peeler over at Amazon.
