Creativity: Pulling away from the field

WHETHER used as confetti at a punk wedding (Anne Greer) or a door knocker for 10 Downing Street ('so much knocking and no response,' says Anthony Savory), the ring-pull, to judge from the volume of readers' suggestions, has perhaps more applications than any other object in the modern world.

Singly, they may be used to castrate lambs, crop tails, hold open nostrils for inspection, divide toes for nail painting, or form monocle frames for children. All those suggestions come from Mrs F King. (No, Mrs King, there is no prize. But let that not inhibit your writing next week. The prestige alone is considerable.) In numbers, Mrs King fits her ring-pulls on to mittens to scrape ice from windows.

Riding past the statue of Boulton, Watt and Murdoch in Broad Street, Birmingham, David Watt suddenly realised that 'these leaders of the industrial revolution were wearing wigs with ringlets made from ring-pulls from drink cans'. Accordingly, he was inspired to suggest a wig for Michael Heseltine.

Back at 10 Downing Street, John and Fiona Earle attach their ring-pulls to the door as tethering rings for Yorkshire terriers. They also extol their virtues for blowing bubbles, holding toothbrushes, training runner-beans, in pairs as lorgnettes for flatfish, or chained together, positively charged, as debris collectors in outer space.

Mr Empty of Surbiton proposes their use as templates for badly proportioned exclamation marks, as a means of reducing manicurists to nervous wrecks, or using the holes as spaghetti measures in a calorie- controlled diet.

Geoffrey Langley points out that since the fracture lines on cans are pre-stressed, the pulls, once pulled, become stress-free and thus make perfect New Age necklaces or secular worry beads. 'The Bristol Society of Optimists has found the latter to be very therapeutic.'

Reg Taylor calculates that 21,754 ring-pulls are sufficient to make chain-mail for all the Valkyries in The Ring. Sara MacAllen advises anyone attempting ring-pull crotchet designs to start with something simple like neo-Victorian lampshades.

Madeleine Samuel prefers netball goals for performing fleas, linked together as cherry graders, or cutters for Yorkshire terrier-sized dog biscuits. Michael Riggs, ex-Sandhurst, drops ring-pulls over his daffodil shoots to be able to slide the mature plant to attention from its natural sloppy and round- shouldered posture.

'The obvious use,' says Nina Dufort, 'is recreational.' With the ring slipped on to a finger the tab may be 'used as a tongue-depressor when administering pills to cats'. Her common or garden uses include door-knockers for rabbit hutches, or recreational aids for shrews and frogs.

In similar vein, Michael Adler suggests 'hoops for mole croquet'. He also proposes 'grab-handles on overcrowded toy trains'.

Back in the animal kingdom, Tom Cleghorn proposes an application to criminal justice, using them to hang errant earthworms. Less harshly, he proposes welding them together in pairs and hanging in trees to create stop-over points for travel-weary bats.

He also thinks they could replace lire as Italy's currency, which could be confusing in view of Steph and Paul's suggestion that they replace UK pennies. Alternatively, they suggest, they could be packed into bags as a perfect snack for robots.

Next week, when we hope to be back to our usual Monday slot, we shall report on your suggested uses for LPs. meanwhile, we should like you to think of things to do with a trombone. Ideas should be sent to Creativity, The Independent, 40 City Road, London EC1Y 2DB.