By Lee Scott
This week has brought on another series of things I did not know. I thought I would have learned everything by now, but alas, it is not true. Oh, I knew I was going to have to keep up with Apple and Microsoft with all their new software, but it is the little things in life that surprise me, and I need to pass them along today.
First, have you ever looked closely at those little white plastic tabs that hold the bread or bagels closed? Many of us have not. Here was my learning moment. I had bought a couple of packages of Lender’s frozen bagels at my local supermarket. When I thawed one package, toasted a bagel, and sat down to eat it, the first bite was horrible. As a faithful Lender’s bagel customer, I felt it was my duty to call their customer service number. The representative was very polite. She asked me about the taste, the product code, and where I bought the bagels. Then she asked, “Do you still have the little white tab on the bagel bag to close it?”
“Yes,” I said.
“What is the expiration date on the tab?”
I had no idea! There was the date — October 2017. The bagels were a year past their expiration date. I will not mention the local grocery store I bought them from, but the customer representative assured me she would check into the issue. She then said she was dropping coupons in the mail to replace the inedible bagels.
After I got off the phone, I started to look at the other bread items. Most have tabs with an expiration date. Then I thought of other things I just learned about, some of which, my friends confessed they did not know either. For example, the icon of the gas pump on my car has its own information. Not the little gas pump icon where it indicates your fuel level, but a separate icon that has either an arrow or a fuel handle pointing to the left or right. It shows which side of the car the fuel goes in. Many cars have this symbol now. I discovered this while renting a car recently. It comes in very handy when you are driving an unfamiliar vehicle.
Then I learned about elevator dings. If you are standing in front of an elevator and it dings once, it is going up. If it dings twice, it is going down. Who knew? Probably people who are blind or who are more observant than me. Now the big question is: What else don’t I know? Probably a lot. But I will make sure I pass them along as the learning continues.
