Hit the 57!

Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share (MPSIMS)
1

My wife and I and second son had a bite to eat at Red Robin yesterday evening and I was trying to get the ketchup out of the bottle and onto the french fries. My usual method is to shake the bottle first and then pour, but it wasn’t working. Both my wife and son started telling me to “Hit the 57!”. Apparently I was supposed to hold the bottle at 45 degrees and hit it smartly just where the neck begins to taper – there is a small “57” embossed in the glass at that point. (Can you guess the brand of ketchup?)

Well – it worked! Don’t give me a lecture on the physics involved (can you spell thixotropic) but do the teeming millions have other sure-fire methods for transferring ketchup from bottle to plate?

Enquiring minds want to know.

“To do her justice, I can’t see that she could have found anything nastier to say if she’d thought it out with both hands for a fortnight.”
Dorothy L. Sayers
Busman’s Honeymoon

2

The quickest and most sure-fire way would be to smash the bottle on your plate. But not everybody likes French Fries with splinters.

Coldfire

“You know how complex women are”

  • Neil Peart, Rush (1993)
3

I do not know why it works, but I was taught about “hitting the 57” about a year ago and damned if it don’t work everytime. Perhaps this is a topic Unca Cecil can enlighten us on, surely there are some fantastic physics involved. For SDMBers I recommend it highly.

“Solos Dios basta”

4

Atreal’s fiancee thrilled us with this skill during our most recent get-together.

She can not only professionally smack the 57 to get the ketchup out, but the back of Atreal’s head as well when inappropriate comments are made.

You are now leaving a “Smiley-free zone”!

A public service message brought to you by G.R.O.S.S.

5

DUH. All women can do THAT, Chief :wink:

Coldfire

“You know how complex women are”

  • Neil Peart, Rush (1993)
6

Coldfire, I can’t believe you had the audacity to post a smilie in a response to the Chief after his little tirade the other day. Methinks you might be getting 57 smacks upside the head from him soon.

That it is unwise to be heedless ourselves while we are giving advice to others, I will show in a few lines.
– Phædrus –

7

What can I say Unc, I live on the edge…

:wink:
:slight_smile:
:smiley:
:stuck_out_tongue:
:I

Etc.

Coldfire

“You know how complex women are”

  • Neil Peart, Rush (1993)
8

All I know is this… after sitting at a table with a group of friends shortly after talking about this method of getting ketchup out of the bottle, one of my friends at the table starts pouring ketchup and it’s coming out really fast. We all start yelling “quick, take your finger off the 57!”

Hey, at the time it was funnier than hell.
wiping a tear from my eye just thinking about it

9

IIRC, the physics of this is detailed in one of Richard Feynman’s books. This is a pretty hazy memory, but I think that’s where I read about it. And yes, it does work. I’ve been doing it that way ever since.

10

Coldfire –

Smack, smack, smack, smack, smack, smack, smack, smack, smack, smack,
smack, smack, smack, smack, smack, smack, smack, smack, smack, smack,
smack, smack, smack, smack, smack, smack, smack, smack, smack, smack,
smack, smack, smack, smack, smack, smack, smack, smack, smack, smack,
smack, smack, smack, smack, smack, smack, smack, smack, smack, smack,
smack, smack, smack, smack, smack, smack and smack!

But really, I’m over it. C’est la vie. I’ve vented.

You are now leaving a “Smiley-free zone”!

A public service message brought to you by G.R.O.S.S.

11

You know what the worst part is ?

I actually counted those damn smacks :wink:

(Yeah. There are REALLY 57 smacks there.)

Coldfire

“You know how complex women are”

  • Neil Peart, Rush (1993)
12

The peerless Ogden Nash had this to say on the subject:

You shake and shake and shake the bottle,
None comes out,
And then the lot’ll.

13

Works like a charm…Everytime.

I learned this trick from a waitress about 15 years ago and it has worked almost immediately everytime!

Its one of those little things I like to impress my friends with!

-Frankie
Lack of charisma can be fatal

14

Yep, it works, and IIRC Cecil did do an article on it. Although I don’t think I read it online, I am pretty sure I read it in a book at one time or another. I was taught by a waitress as well.

If your head is wax, don’t walk in the sun.
-Benjamin Franklin

15

(It also works with other brands of catsup, so it’s not a numerological thing)
Perhaps it causes an air bubble to shimmy up there, breaking the suction-seal, like when you pour water out of a bottle carefully?

16

I have one word to say: colloid.

Anyway, one night, while eating dinner out with my cousin, she really embarassed me by sticking a knife into the bottle to get the ketchup out! Oh my, the horror, the horror. Needless to say, we don’t dine out together that often anymore :wink:

“It is now proved beyond doubt that smoking is one of the leading causes of statistics.”

17

I used to use a knife until people told me it was really gross, now I just use my tongue.
Zette

Love is like popsicles…you get too much you get too high.

Not enough and you’re gonna die…
Click here for some GOOD news for a change Zettecity

18

LOL Zette. Then again there’s always the “Positive Pressure” technique: Put a straw down to the bottom and blow! ::warning:If you do decide to try this at home, please use goggles kids::

“It is now proved beyond doubt that smoking is one of the leading causes of statistics.”

19

Ahhh yes, reminds me of an old Jerry Clower tape where he’s talking about eating dinner at the Ledbetter’s house. Marcel Ledbetter cuts his biscuit in half and then uses the same knife for getting butter. WHAAAAACCK Grandma Ledbetter hits Marcel upside the head… "Marcel, you know better than to stick your knife in the butter, before you done licked all the crumbs off it first!

Enright3

20

Here in about a year, restaurants are just gonna hafta get into the 21st century, and start putting their catsup (‘ketchup,’ whatever) in plastic containers, SQUEEZABLE plastic containers!

‘Thixotropic’ principles aside, the problem with that red stuff in glass bottles is not getting the red stuff out, it’s getting air IN! Coaxing practically anything out of a closed rigid container, under the normal ambient conditions, requires that you find a way to DISPLACE that thing with some other thing, in this case AIR. The butter-knife down the neck thing does that, by opening a free channel for air to enter the bottle. Tapping the ‘57’ label does the same thing, by displacing the red stuff to one side of the restrictive neck of the bottle and allowing the air to enter. Drilling a hole in the base of the bottle would accomplish the desired result too, but I don’t recommend it for the viewers at home…

Only the SDMB folks could create this sort of mountain out of such a small, silly molehill.

I don’t know why fortune smiles on some and lets the rest go free…

T