The Never-Empty Ketchup Bottle

Topping Off the Heinz

You've seen them around; you can appreciate a classy joint by the fact that when you take the top off a full bottle of ketchup, it's (1) not overly full, and (2) actually sealed because it's NEW. Not refilled.

It is so accepted in the US that ketchup bottles will be filled every night, just like the salt shakers, that somebody even makes a double-ended screw-on coupling for putting two bottles together so one can be emptied into another. But there's a contradiction here. I've been talking about the bottles that never get emptied. Maybe these coupling devices are a good thing, enabling the odd bottle here and there to actually get emptied, then (gasp!) WASHED OUT!!

Heinz does have a nicely designed bottle, but putting anything other than Heinz ketchup into a Heinz bottle ought to be illegal, and perhaps in some places it is. I hope so.

Maybe I should not worry about this since I'm on a low-carb diet now and I don't use ketchup any more.