The other day I opened up a can of
peanuts. Which was good, because when the smell burst from it and my friend
said, "Who opened up a can of peanuts?" I was covered.
Later, halfway through the can, I
noticed something in it. Kind of dry floating as it were, drifting its way
through the peanuts like a little paper raft.
It's a Cracker Jack prize! I
thought. Without caramel corn! I was delighted. Even though it looked like one
of the modern day Cracker Jack prizes, a boring little piece of paper with a
word puzzle on it. Not the great soldier-shaped choke-inducing lumps of lead
they used to include.
I pulled it out and was promptly
un-delighted. It wasn't a Cracker Jack prize at all, it was a freshness packet.
What used to be silica gel when they packed it with cameras, but who knows what
chemical now.
They must be safe because you see
them everywhere. In lots of sizes, from little half-inch things in pill
bottles, to larger ones packed in electronic gear. The only place they never
seem to put one is in the humidity-induced clumpiest food there is, bags of
sugar.
This one was about an
inch-and-a-half square. Some of the words on it said, "oxygen
absorber." I suppose that means they don't want the peanuts to rust. A
bunch of other words seemed to be "do not eat" in a variety of
languages.
Which was a cool little language lesson.
"No coma" is apparently the Spanish way to say "don't eat,"
not "don't pass out." Then there was "ne pas avaler,"
"nicht schlucken," and five other phrases in foreign alphabets and
pictographs I couldn't make out.
Huh. I guess it was like a
crackerjack puzzle after all.
America, ya gotta love it.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment