programming and human factors
by Jeff Atwood
Why does the sporkfe fascinate me so?
It's a spoon. It's a fork. It's a knife. Some call it a splade-- sold commercially in Australia for the last 50 years under the Splayds brand name-- but I prefer sporkfe. Really, when was the last time you ate your food with a blade?
I have no idea why I bought these. But at least I saved myself from the indignity of owning the Mother of All Swiss Army Knives.
And no, it shouldn't be called the sporknif, either.
Jeff Atwood on August 29, 2006 9:52 AMThe Splade is an entirely different beast to the sporkfe. The splade combines the fork, spoon and knife into one end of the cutlery, as opposed to the double-ended sporkfe image above. And it is much much easier to pronounce.
A splade is like a spoon with tines and a semi-sharpened edge on one side. The above illustrated device seems very dangerous with the serration ready to rip your cheeks apart :)
My mum has a full set of splades in her cutlery drawer. I have been looking for some but am not prepared to pay $40 for 8 simple pieces of metal.
SuperCujo on August 29, 2006 10:36 AMSo lets say you're eating, I dunno, a Mexican Salad.
What happens if halfway through your meal you decide that the fork isn't cutting it. You decide its time to switch to 'spoon mode' to try and get those last pieces of mince/ground beef. What happens next? You get all the remnant corn chips and sour cream from your fork all over you hands
Personally I think the splade is the way to.....pure genius.....one ends for putting in the mouth....the other for your hand. Simple.
Andrew Davey on August 29, 2006 11:13 AM
1) The fact that "sporkfe" is nearly impossible to pronounce isn't a bug.. it's a feature!
2) Are you honestly gonna decide to switch from fork to spoon mid-meal? Really? REALLY? C'mon. And at least the fork has full-size tines you wrap spaghetti around, not those dinky quarter-size tines of a traditional spork.
On the other hand, the idea that we're actually arguing about which horrible, makeshift, 3-way eating implement is better than the other is freakin' hilarious.
Jeff Atwood on August 29, 2006 11:24 AM"horrible, makeshift, 3-way eating implement"
Gee, thanks...
We use splades at home all the time -- great for curry and rice, pasta (the shells/tubes - not spaghetti), or any of those sort of things where there's a semi-liquid component that's difficult to use with a spoon, but you want to be able to pick up individual pieces of something with.
We typically only use them when eating while watching TV though.
fwiw -- we don't have the expensive "Splayd" brand -- they look pretty fugly to me, they're a different shape which emphasise the spoon over the blade component. Oh, and they're stainless steel - not silver.
Will on August 29, 2006 12:06 PMI don't like the look of that. I'll stick with my traditional spork thank you very much. The sporsk from Marks and Spencers are the best.
[ICR] on August 29, 2006 12:34 PMMy wife and I got 2 boxes of Splayds as a wedding present. They're easily the most useful things we received.
Kille rPoke on August 30, 2006 3:50 AMThe most important question : Are they banned on transatlantic flights?
If you could take them on to replace airline cutlery, everyone would want one!
Kille rPoke on August 30, 2006 3:52 AM"2) Are you honestly gonna decide to switch from fork to spoon mid-meal? Really? REALLY? C'mon. And at least the fork has full-size tines you wrap spaghetti around, not those dinky quarter-size tines of a traditional spork."
Well, fact is, I do. But to be honest, if you have to use a knife to cut it, you should have a separate knife, no? Otherwise, just cut it with the side of the implement and you're done.
With that, I'm inclined to back off to the old stand-by spork and not worry about switching ends OR cutting my mouth.
Jim Lang on August 30, 2006 6:21 AMNow all that remains to be invented is the addition of chopsticks into this mix. Sporkfetick anyone? Or perhaps Chosplayde?
Sash on August 30, 2006 7:03 AMThis is a beautiful lesson about convergence: This tool replaces the knife, spoon and fork. But each individual piece is less useful/usable than the tool it replaced.
And besides, you're meant to have a knife and fork separate from each other. The knife is not really useful without a fork to hold down and secure that which is being cut.
optimuscrime on August 30, 2006 7:06 AMYeah, you know, "sporkfe" is a definite no-go for a name. Very user-unfriendly. If you can't pronounce it you can't market it. It's all about image, baby! Plus, I agree that you certainly don't want anything with lots of small serrated edges going near your mouth. Not a solid design on many levels. So here's a new combination: the sporkfe and the recycle bin, narf.
Ken on August 30, 2006 7:22 AM
i got one of these to save some weight in my backpack when i go hiking.
glen on August 30, 2006 7:37 AMThis is the most useful and practical thing I've seen in a while. Just when I thought the Spork couldn't be beat!
Brandon on August 30, 2006 7:51 AM"splade" does not include the fork aspect, and you can't say that its a combination of spork and blade when spork is itself a portmanteau. Plus, the official "splayd" is more fork than spoon. Therefore, despite the awkward pronunciation, Sporkfe is a far superior name for this ridiculous tool.
Also, wasn't anybody taught that sticking a knife in your mouth is a bad thing?
mallio on August 30, 2006 8:13 AMI have 2 hands...
one for fork, one for knife. If I need a spoon, I put one of the others down.
its simple really, when you think about it.
Jonny on August 30, 2006 10:19 AMDo a Google for "hobo fork"
So a "hobo fork" is a fold-out swiss army knife style contraption?
http://www.outdoorsuperstore.com/product.asp?prod=309103
Jeff Atwood on August 30, 2006 11:16 AMglen has it right, this is very useful for camping/backpacking.
Eli on August 30, 2006 11:51 AMJack of all trades, master of none, though ofttimes better than master of one
Jack on August 30, 2006 12:09 PMI found some hilarious suggestions when I put "spoonforknife" into the Internet Anagram Server. http://wordsmith.org/anagram/
Jeremy on August 30, 2006 12:52 PMI think "sporkfe" is difficult to pronounce, even though it's more descriptive from splade.
Elie Constantine on August 30, 2006 1:19 PMElie is correct, "sporkfe" is awkward to pronounce.
Splayde treats the fork as some third class citizen and, as such, opens the door to a class action suit by all those madder forkers out there.
What about Splaydork? In French we would have Le Splaydork. Roll it off your tongue a few times - OK, with the cerrated edge that might be dangerous - but I truly believe this is the best option of all three.
Tim Dudra on August 30, 2006 1:56 PMthat thing (emphasis on thing) makes my head spin :D
jonezy on August 31, 2006 9:16 AMIf your that keen to do away with traditional cutlery in favour of some do-it-all time saver, why nut just use your hands?
That's right kids. Hands. The wash up easy. They're always within arms reach. And unlike clumsy eating tools, Hands (TM) can apply the full tearing force your arms possess. Put two hands together and you have a cup. It's just that simple!
and-81 on August 31, 2006 1:58 PMThe problem with combining these words is that they all have k in them and two of them have f in them, and the sound of *spork* is already taken by sporks.
Probably *sporfek* (spor-fehk) (because it has the feh where people expect the kuh sound of *spork* to be) could work, or *knispok* (nee-spohk) (because it sounds completely different than spork).
chaotic_set on September 1, 2006 8:22 AMErr. Not sure this is relevent here, but I have noticed something of a trend in North America / Canada to use a knife and fork at the start of a meal to cut it all up, then swith to the fork only for eating. Except, in practice, I used to notice that my Canadian ex used to occasionally realise, half way through the plate, that some food was not cut up enough so she would swap fork back to left hand, knife back in right, cut, then put knife back down and pick up fork in right hand again.
Whereas, I was brought up (in England) to use knife and fork throughout the eating process. There are crazy exceptions, of course, like soup, where we learnt that spoons were the only implement worth using.
I wonder if possible 'cultural' difference in how we learnt to eat could contribute to a difference in preference for sporkfe or splayds or whatever?
Nij on September 6, 2006 8:50 AMWhen cutting food in the traditional table sense, you stabilize the food with your fork...what do you use with the sporkfe, another sporkfe?
Personally, being the outdoorsy type, I prefer the Hobo utensils over sporks and such. Do a Google for "hobo fork" and you'll see some examples of this convenient design.
Bobbleson on February 6, 2010 9:51 PMHaha, worst invention ever! Personally, I'm not too comfortable with the idea of sticking a serrated blade into my mouth. Not even a plastic one.
How long until we get a combination fork/spoon/knife/straw/apple-corer/melon-baller/cheese-grater/ballpoint pen?
Aaron G on February 6, 2010 9:51 PMJust so, Jeff, except that, unlike the Swiss Army concept, the Hobo can be disassembled into its individual utensils..."Unique locking system allows utensils to be used assembled or easily slid apart."
Bobbleson on February 6, 2010 9:51 PMThe comments to this entry are closed.
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