So I asked myself, like any self-respecting TV fan left with minimal resources and the pressing need to free herself from impending danger, ''What would MacGyver do?'' In my case, he would use purple-handled scissors and a key chain to pry open the door lock, then duct tape the lock down so he couldn't get trapped again. I'm not the only one who's used the brains-over-brawn approach to emulate everyone's favorite resourceful secret agent. On last week's Nurse Jackie, Edie Falco stuck a piece of gum on the end of a pen to retrieve a pill from her sink drain (hey, anything goes when you have to feed that under-the-radar prescription drug addiction).
Have you ever MacGyvered yourself out of a sticky situation? In the absence of a Swiss Army knife, what normal household items did you use to solve your problem? And how much fun is it to use MacGyver as a verb?
Sorry, I’m slow today, but I still don’t understand how you can lock yourself in a room with a door that locks from the inside. (Assuming the lock wasn’t broken.)
I broke into my college dorm room with a credit card and a pocket knife. It was one of my finest hours.
In high school, we had a party at my friend’s house while her parents were out of town. Someone tipped over a chair, which crashed into a low cabinet with those old school wooden blind-looking doors. (You know what I’m talking about? Like the closet in “E.T.”?) Anyway, a friend of ours MacGuyvered the cabinet door back together using only safety pins. Amazing feat still talked about to this day among my friends.
Twice I McGyvered my way out of a disastrous situation, both times were legendary. The first was when the metal hook latch on the screen door managed to lock itself when the door slammed shut. It wasn’t my house and the people staying there had left their house keys inside while they went down to the beach. I had to pry the latch back up by threading dental floss around the hook with a bobby pin.
The second time was when the handles on both sides of the door fell off while I was in the bathroom of what till that moment I had assumed was a lovely new apartment and not a Bluth family home. That took my key card and a shoe lace to push back the latch and free myself.