WHAT'S UP WITH THIS?

Is it just me, or has packaging becoming more and more 'user unfriendly'? My wife would tell you opening packaging is not my strong suit. She might even tell you she has yet to find my strong suit. No, she wouldn't say that, would she? Anyway, items that have that very attractive packaging with the see-through plastic have been known to take me up to a half hour to open. By the time I get to the product, I'm half tempted to return it for lack of interest. The other day I bought some clever electronic gadget that came sealed in one of those attractive see-through plastic packages. I used a knife, a scissors, and came very close to using a match to melt away the packaging. It's frustrating to say the least. The other drawback is there is no way to actually get a good look at the product. You can see what they choose to show you through the plastic, but you certainly can't see the sides or bottom. Not that long ago these products would have been in a bin with maybe a twisty to keep them from tangling, but you could touch and feel and even see what you were buying. And, when you got it home you could actually use it the same day!

Television commercials are taking up more and more of our time. A thirty minute TV show is actually only eighteen minutes long. The rest of the time is an endless parade of commercials. Many of these are commercials for upcoming TV shows, the other half are repetitious and normally idiotic product commercials. Most of the products promoted are probably packaged in that wonderful see-through plastic. I smell a "frustration conspiracy". There are only a few TV shows I try not to miss. These would include American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance and Law And Order. So You Think You Can Dance now has a series of commercials after each couple has danced. I counted fourteen commercials during one commercial break last night. The one hour show was only thirty-five minutes long. Of course I watch football; Notre Dame football in particular. It's getting so ND football, when they are at home and televised on NBC, have a commercial every chance they get. An injury (commercial), a review of a play (commercial), a timeout (many commercials). It's far worse when you're at the game and you really notice how many "TV timeouts" are called. At least when you're at home you can take a walk, but when you are at the game, you're pretty much stuck in your seat. I have often reverted to simply listening to ND on the radio. I like the announcers better anyway and their commercials are far fewer.

And how about the choices we have today. Just a few too many I think. Cereal is just unbelievable. I haven't counted, but there must be fifty varieties of cereal. I remember when there were only Wheaties, Corn Flakes and Cheerios. Not having other choices made you appreciate what you had. We didn't know any better. We assumed that would be it. The problems arise when you have kids and they all like something different. I saw a woman at the supermarket yesterday who had twelve boxes of cereal. It looked like a variety of brands. I could only feel sympathy. I'm a firm believer that half the insanity in the world today is brought on by far too many choices. I remember when Gillette and Schick had one type of blade and package size; now I can't even remember which type of Gillette blade I use; or is Schick? Maybe it's just me.

jim doyle
doyle262@gmail.com