It's Okay, I'm Just Weird

Lunch Break

Recently I've noticed that they've sort of redesigned the Ziplock sandwich bags I use every day to transport my sandwich to the office. Unfortunately, it's not always for the better. Either it's the new design or a bad lot batch, but getting the bags open again after sealing them isn't as clean a process as it's been for the last, oh, ten years or so. One side of the bag has always been slightly longer than the other so it is easier to separate the two tabs, but these new bags have (a) less difference between them than before and (b) the plastic is thinner and weaker so that sometimes the tab tears away from the Ziplock seal instead of pulling the seal apart. This happens a lot in the morning when I am opening up the bag which holds my cheese slices.

A Small Revelation

This tab tearing is more likely to happen when I try to open the bag "backwards" -- for me it seems like the bags were designed to be opened/closed with the longer seal in the back, but as I said it is harder to tell that now. Today at lunch I was examining the sandwich bag and I realized that the color coding of the "red + blue makes purple" seal corresponds to the optical Doppler Shift:

The shorter tab has the blue seal -- it is "coming towards you with a blue shift". The longer tab "in back" has the red seal (okay, it's more pinkish or magenta, so sue me) -- it is "going away from you with a red shift".

So now I shall experiment to see if I can keep the bags from tearing and have an easier time getting stuff in/out of the bag.

I Am Such A Geek

I wonder if someone at Ziplock planned it this way.

Dr. Phil