here's my attempt, about a half hour's work. The cylinder's easy, you can scale and extrude to get the necessary shape (or even stack cylinders). The arms are a torus, cut into fourths, then rotated (flipped in this package) to get into position. Then the sides are flattened, and the edges scaled down (ends) or up (the center), then the vertical edges are smoothed to make the curve more convincing..hope this helps.

I wish I'd said that.. The Staircase Wit

anahl nathrak uth vas betude doth yel dyenvey..;)