« When Talk Radio Rants Go Wrong | Main | Interview with Radley Balko Part III »
Charles Homans of The Washington Monthly offers an inspired nomination: "the ketchup packet." As soon as I saw the words I concurred, but I followed up to make sure I knew exactly what he meant.
"Any non-obvious reasons for your pick?" I asked.
"The design flaws are pretty obvious," he wrote. "Difficulty of operation, wastefulness, insufficient quantities for any conceivable ketchup application. That's what makes its existence in present form--and the lack of design improvements over however many decades--so baffling. Mayonnaise packets were actually able to solve most of these problems. It suggests to me that there must be someone powerful with a vested interest in the ketchup packet as it stands."
Of course, there are powerful people behind ketchup, and dedicated men have tried and failed to challenge its status quo before.
(Send your own "Worst Idea Ever" nominations to Thinkingbig@theatlantic.com)
Post a comment