2387 Zipster

The other day I was using one of those marvelous pieces of modern technology and it suddenly occurred to me I take it totally for granted.  In the sense that it registers zero wonder in my brain.  As in zero, nada, zip.  

Zip is right, because it was a Ziploc bag.

For the word zip meaning nothing, it's amazing how much things that go zip have powered our culture.  The Ziploc bag is used everywhere to keep things fresh in the pantry, fridge, or freezer.  And what a clever idea to manufacture plastic bags with their own seal.  Saving us the effort and potential carpal-tunneling of twisting and untwisting countless twist ties. 

Speaking of ties.  How about those other zip things that make things zip along.  Zip-ties.  From everything to securing speaker wires out of the way on end table legs to lashing the hands of punks and perpetrators, zip-ties are incredibly strong, reliable, and versatile fasteners. 

To paraphrase, or perhaps borrow a little verbal leverage from Archimedes: Give me the zip of a zip-tie and the rip of a roll of duct tape and I could move anything in the world.  Or at least MacGyver it.

How about that other zip-a-dee doodad?  The zipper itself.  How many work hours has the zipper freed up by making it possible to avoid the endless buttoning and unbuttoning of one's trousers?  Letting one shorten one's break, zip out of the bathroom and reengage in productive activity. 

Not to mention inspiring original initialized messages that were years ahead of texting.  Forget LOL and OMG, we had XYZ all the way back in junior high in 1965.

We owe a lot to those things we take for granted, zippers, zip-ties, Ziploc bags.  It's pretty cool that we do know zip. 

America, ya gotta love it.