Oklahoma’s Most Famous Invention Might Be Its Most Useless

Oklahoma has given the world a lot of useful inventions over the years.

The parking meter. The shopping cart. Voice mail.

And then there's today's topic... The twist tie.

That little wire-and-paper contraption was invented by an Oklahoma man 80 years ago, and while we all appreciate the ingenuity, there is a looming question.

Does anybody use them?

Sure, they're useful at the factory level. They'll keep electronic wires bundled or a loaf of bread sealed while it's shipped to the store, but are they used more than once?

I mean, once you open the loaf of bread, the job of the twisty tie is over, right?

Maybe it's just an Oklahoma thing, but I've never met anyone who re-uses the twist tie after making a sandwich. The second that loaf enters the house, that twist tie hits the trash.

Are we on the same page about that?

Meanwhile, even without the wire seal, the bread survives just fine. Every Oklahoman knows the real way to close a loaf of bread.

You grab the open end, twist it, and fold it all under what's still left of the bag. The weight of the bread is the seal. Done.

If that sounds strange to you, where are you from? Millions of bread loaves live a serving existence this way, and we're all fine aside from the slow glyphosate poisoning.

Maybe that's what makes the bread twist tie such a fascinating Oklahoma invention.

It's undeniably successful. Millions of people use them every day. Tons of industries couldn't function without them, yet the moment the end user opens the package, it's game over.

That's a rare achievement.

Most inventions solve a problem. The twist tie solves a problem so effectively that its usefulness ends the second you buy it, and that may make it the world's best bad invention.

Or maybe the world's worst great invention?

Either way, somewhere out there is an Oklahoma inventor whose creation ended up in billions of homes, and none of us care to use it.