Woo hoo. The Battle of the Gurkentopf is over. I am victorious. Thanks to the skill and resourcefulness of my friends, I have stormed the citadel and freed the gherkins. A mere case of inverting the jar in a bowl, pouring boiling water around the lid, thumping it on the bottom, helping it right way up again, then stabbing the lid with a needle. And it yielded with barely a hissy fit and no animals or people were hurt in the process.

And it occurs to me that only my female friends were able to rise up and meet this challenge. Without the aid of a power tool. Except brain power.

Ladies - today the gherkins, tomorrow the world.

*saunters off, whistling "If I ruled the world ....*