Did you know…
Fears of food tampering predate even Snow White and the wicked Queen with her apple.
No, really!
Yes, so with a title of “But the Dang Thing Won’t Open,” of course it’s going to be at least partially a tounge-in-cheek article. The article–on the trials and tribulations of product packaging–is, if not illuminating, at least interesting, in a sadistic sort of way. Did you know that wrap rage–the phenomenon of a consumer throwing caution to the wind in trying to open a package with knives, scissors, or what-have-you–causes upwards of 60,000 injuries a year in Great Britain alone? I bet you didn’t. You’ll learn many other things from this informative article if you so desire. Of course, it only addresses the consumer and producer angles of things, and doesn’t so much as whisper of the whole waste issue of (over)packaging.
(WaPo: “But the Dang Thing Won’t Open,” by Joyce Gemperlein [June 12, 2005])