Postcards: Why is the Cork on the Fork?

You can't open a bottle of wine with a fork; doing so isn't safe. Also, let me show you one of my favorite stocks of the year... with a massive upside (it's fun... and it's free.)

Dear Fellow Expat:

In the film Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Steve Martin plays an American con man - Freddie Benson - who teams up with Michael Caine (his character is Lawrence Jamieson) to usurp money from wealthy women.

At one point, “Freddie” portrays a character named “Ruprict.”

Ruprict is the “challenged” brother of Caine’s pretend character, a freedom-fighting prince. During dinner with one of the wealthy targets, Ruprict uses a fork with a wine cork on it to eat apple sauce.

“Why is the cork on the fork?” asks an unsuspecting woman...

“To prevent him from hurting himself... and others," Caine boasts.

The Ruprict sequence is one of the best five minutes of Steve Martin in any film.

I’ve watched it four times just writing this article.

All that said… there’s a point.

My wife picked up some wine last night for our stay at the Gramercy Mansion in Lutherville, MD.

We lacked a wine key in the room, so I tried to open it with a fork.

It didn’t pan out.

This is the result of those efforts.