Ratchet Screwdrivers: origins of

ADDED 21 09 2004: You may or may not be ware that the Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy (H2G2) is now
broadcasting anew, books 3,4 &5!

see: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/

This snippet really made me laugh...

"Very few things actually get manufactured these days, because in an infinitely large Universe, such as the one in which we live, most things one could possibly imagine, and a lot of things one would rather not, grow somewhere. A forest was discovered recently in which most of the trees grew ratchet screwdrivers as fruit. The life cycle of the ratchet screwdriver is quite interesting. Once picked it needs a dark dusty drawer in which it can lie undisturbed for years. Then one night it suddenly hatches, discards its outer skin that crumbles into dust, and emerges as a totally unidentifiable little metal object** with flanges at both ends and a sort of ridge and a hole for a screw. This, when found, will get thrown away. No one knows what the screwdriver is supposed to gain from this. Nature, in her infinite wisdom, is presumably working on it."

**I have several of these, they are the square lamp retaining plates which are part of the lamp reflector retaining ring!!!

Or do you know any different?