I think Granny kinda got screwed. There can’t be a market for those. He was just trying to rid himself of that terrible merchandise and your Granny was ready to be sold.
Had I such a device I would use it to lift low density foods out of oil in a deep fat fryer. I’m thinking fried bread dough, zeppole or beignets.
Yeah, all the right-angled spatula/flipper looking implements I could find that are used as potato mashers have the slots extending into the vertical portion of the implement. I can’t find a single picture using the various search terms I could come up with and guesses at its use that matches the photo in the OP. Given the OP’s experience with it as a potato masher, it’s either a badly designed one based on someone’s half-memory of the instrument, or something completely different. I’m leaning towards the latter.
On the other hand, the shape doesn’t really make sense for it to be anything other than a potato masher. I did find this one with holes in it and nothing up the vertical portion, so maybe it just is a poorly designed potato masher:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GP9Q3YY?tag=kitchenseas0a-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1
It’s also been suggested it could be for turning something like potstickers pan frying in the bottom of a deep pot. That sounds good in theory, but it’s hard to get the leverage at that distance if the food is at all stuck on the pot (as such foods should be).
Thank you all for your suggestions. I think this tool is not much longer for my house.
Since the OP seems to be answered …
It’s a kitchen step stool, designed to help you reach things that are maybe a single centimeter beyond your unaided reach.
It has a safety handle to help you balance yourself (significant fall injury risk).
It didn’t sell well.
Crooked Spatula = band name!
You aren’t going mad. I have one of those sitting in my kitchen as we speak. Pretty much exactly the same as the OP. it was marketed as a potato masher, I bought it as a potato masher, I use it as a potato masher, it works perfectly as a potato masher.
It is, I can reveal, a potato masher.