Today was my birthday. I got a number of gifts, all of them of a practical nature. The most important one by far was a new electric can opener. It was a Cuisinart.

It doesn’t look like much, but trust me I needed one. It replaces a very old Rival Model 781/5 electric can opener that’s so old I don’t remember the year I purchased it, or where. It could have come from Service Merchandise, or K-Mart, or Sears, or some other out-of-business department store.

The Rival has served for decades, going back to when my adult children were children.

I literally compared the two by holding one in each hand. The Rival is a lot heavier compared to the Cuisinart. It’s built like a tank. The Rival’s plastic is thicker, there’s more of it, and every non-plastic part on it is thick metal. The Cuisinart by comparison is plastic on plastic and a lot lighter. The handle on top is plastic where the Rival’s is chromed steel. The Rival still works, after a fashion. It’s that it’s taking two turns of the can to fully open it. I’m hoping the Cuisinart works for at least half as long as the Rival it’s replacing. It should. Canned food is now coming with tops that open. Only a very few items come in cans that require an electric can opener. In the mean time I’ll put the Rival out on the garage and see if I can clean it up and replace some parts, and then give it to someone who needs a working one. Or just hang on to it in case the Cuisinart doesn’t hold up as well.