Here's a good plastics-related trivia question: What's the name of the plastic tip at the end of your shoelace?
If you know the answer, you might be in the "aglet" business. Or maybe you remember the 1975 episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, where Sue Ann Niven, played by the great Betty White, brought her date to visit Mary at 2 a.m. to show her an example of the guys she was dating.
"You know those little celluloid things that... that go on the ends of shoelaces? He makes those. There's not even a name for them," White said. "When I asked him what he did for a living, he had to take his shoe off to show me."
It was a missed opportunity for the plastic aglet sector. And the fact that Jesse, the boring aglet salesman, didn't know the name of the product just made it even more memorable.
At least it did for me. If you can't tell already, I'm a trivia fan. I'm one of those annoying people who watches Jeopardy! and blurts out the answers.
Once in a while, when a plastics reference works its way in, it's particularly exciting.
A few weeks ago, playing Wordle, there was finally a plastics-related word: epoxy. Tough one to solve, because of the "x." Right, Wordle fans? It took me five guesses.
Aglet would be another good plastics-related word for the Wordle folks. The letters are pretty common, but I'm guessing a lot of people would fail to solve the puzzle. If it's in a puzzle soon and you solve it, you can thank me.
Meanwhile, I'm watching for more plastics-related Wordles. Let's see, we've still got nylon, vinyl, mould…
Loepp is editor of Plastics News and author of The Plastics Blog. Follow him on Twitter @donloepp.