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Local woman Erica Sloane is using discarded pistachio shells to open more pistachios as if she were a chimp who just learned to use primitive tools.
“When I started, I thought, ‘Wow, that was so clever of me!’” said Sloane while prying open the nuts with old shells in the same way that a chimpanzee uses rocks to break apart hard fruits. “I almost went to the kitchen to grab a butter knife, but I figured out a better way using what I had around me!”
“I can’t imagine that just anybody would think to try what I did,” remarked Sloane, deriving the same pleasure from opening pistachios that a Gombe chimpanzee does after using a twig to dig termites out of the dirt. “When it happened, I was pretty proud of myself for figuring it out. I just randomly tried wedging an old shell into a slit that was too tight, and then, bam!”
At press time, Sloane was seen flailing large sticks to intimidate her rivals.
