time for a condiment

At costco today I had trouble extracting the onions from their dispensor for my "hot dog." A friendly staff woman came by just as I was about to give up. "You have to turn it clock wise," she said. Well, this so-called clock was not oriented to my advantage, I thought: it rotated for and against me you see, not arcing on a plane to left or right. So, the woman began to gently and slowly stroke this machine forwards and back as if to recussitate a sparrow - and voila; she conjurred my onions. I told her, apparently "one mustn't allienate the onion."