Huge hugs to whoever invented cherry pitters. Back in the spring (perhaps motivated by the cherry blossoms) I put out the word to the garage sale goddess and within time she provided me with an abundance of cherry pitters so that I had to start turning them down. I got the one I wanted – the kind where your thumb goes into a loop that can raise or lower a plunger which expels the pit from the cherry nestled in the little cupped platform. But this morning, wanting cherries in with sliced nectarines and creamy soya milk and not wanting to negotiate pits, what my hand reaching into the MISC drawer in the kitchen came up with was the cherry pitter that looks more like a stapler. The cherry sits in a hollow with a hole at the bottom and the upper arm of the pitter has a cylinder that pushes out the stone. I know from experience that either causes splatters so I ‘performed the operation’ over a white bowl and watched the red freckles appear. Then I counted the pits to make sure they corresponded with the number of cherries because sometimes the pitter misses the actual pit but leaves a convincing hole: unpleasant unexpected discovery to unsuspecting teeth!