Needle riddle

My good friend, Rebecca occasionally flicks me riddles.  I love having to think, knowing there is one correct answer.  And it's a great way to keep in touch.

     Here was last week's riddle:

     What works better when it has something in its eye? 

     Of course, a needle! I emailed back the answer with a page of what had been happening in my world.

     Correct, she wrote and so preceded news of her life.

     I related the riddle to my family.  Four out of five of us are on the farm for the weekend.

     No one guessed the answer so I told them, unable to hide the smug tone in my voice.  

     I am the slow one in my family so small wins like that bring out the childish brat in me.

     "Cathy," they chorused, "that's not right."

     "Needles are more useful without anything in the eye," said Stephen, a botanist.  

     I didn't have time to point out his poor grammar - eye should have been plural to match 'needles.'  This is where I get caught out for being slow.

     They came up with a list of uses for the humble needle without thread.

• picking a zit with the point
• extracting a blackhead using the head
• bursting a blister
• scraping foreign material from a wound (eg Dad accidentally rubbed a sore on his arm against rusty metal and he used a needle to extract the rust)
• picking something from teeth (I quite regularly floss with a needle - point for between incisors and the head for between molars
• using as a compass (apparently you tap it and it becomes magnetic as the atoms become aligned with the magnetic field of the earth - per Dad although I'd like to see this verified)
• piercing ears
• picking a lock
• holding a chook's bum together while it is being roasted - I am a bit dubious about this application as I would have thought it was the thread that holds the anus together.
• cleaning fingernails
• extracting a splinter from a heel or palm
• scratching the mould from tiles
• lancing a boil (although I prefer the heated bottle treatment)
• wrap a tissue around the needle and clean between the keys on a computer keyboard
• sliding under a steamed envelope seal when you want to reseal it

I conceded.  Needles have more applications with empty eyes.

No one thought of this