Innovative uses for a coffee stirring stick

Every year my honor society has an induction ceremony where we welcome our new members. Myself and a couple of other students form the local chapter's executive. Many of us have been organizing the ceremony for a couple of years so we delegate the various tasks among each of us. I send out reminder emails to our 400 new members and handle all the email correspondence. While in Phoenix, AZ, the president and I drafted the speeches and constructed the programme. One of the more humorous part happened in Monument Valley. We were midway through a three mile hike around a 1000 feet butte and waiting for the morning sun to catch it and admiring the stillness and silence when when my iPhone chirps away. The message was along the line, do I remember how many cakes we bought last year.

Every year there are new challenges and some we can't seem to solve. The most pressing deals with knives to cut the celebration cake. We always end up by forgetting them in the mad rush. This year was no exception. In the past we have used cardboard, plastic plates and forks. They all work but not very well. While the speeches were going on we had to quickly find a way of cutting and serving cake to 400 people. The solution this year was to slice the cake using wooden coffee stirrers and to us two forks to lift the cake onto the plates. The solution worked and at times it was comical to watch. The students and parents didn't seem to notice as they were eager for free food and coffee.