Ripping Yarns

I'm cooking a shepherd's pie.

I'm using one of those packet sauces and as I ripped it open I noticed that it ripped in a perfectly straight line. I already knew it would do this - I'm an old-hand at opening packets - but it was not always the case.

You used to have to use your own skill and dexterity to open the paper packet, but I can't remember ever having any sauce-based incidents because of sloppy tearing. Perhaps I have a natural talent for these things, but it would never have crossed my mind that the packet sauce packaging would need improving.

That's probably why I'm not a packaging designer (though if you were a packaging designer, and your speciality was sauce packets made of paper, you'd probably need to find something new to do with them...).

Of course, putting a ring pull on a can of tomatoes is a fabulous innovation. And I love those boxes of sugar with the plastic lids.