Origins: The Boston Round Bottle (Part 5) – An unexpected plot twist!

Last night I cracked the code! Boston Round bottles are known to have smaller neck sizes than jars or wide mouth bottles. Typical neck finishes range from 20mm to 28mm across. This means that they are versatile in being able to accommodate any number of closure types. Typical neck finishes will usually have five numbers, for example 24-410. The first two are the opening of the container in millimeters; the next three determine how tall the neck of the bottle is.

Then it came to me. If I take a 20-400 and 24-410 neck finish on a Boston Round and add them to come up with the number 42. And we can take a 410 and 400 drop the last digit, add and then subtract 10 we get the number 71. And 42 degrees N, 71 degrees W give us the precise geographical coordinates for, Boston Massachusetts! (Well almost about 15 miles south of it, but still! Very close.)

I’ve decided to try one more time to coerce management into paying for me to go to Boston to hunt for the clues surrounding the origins of the Boston Round Bottle. They’ve been stubborn but gave some pause when in desperation I turned to bribery. They suggested I should get some sleep, that maybe I’ve been working too hard. I see this for what it is, as nothing more than a clever ploy to get me to nap at my desk so they can inject me with some kind of memory loss drug.

I don't fall for it and instead increase my bribery bid to $5, hard cash. They let out a sigh and call for an adjournment to our meeting. Well I can play hard ball too. I increase my offer to $500. One of them points out that I could just buy a plane ticket to Boston for this price. It's beyond that, now it's about the principal of the thing. I double again at $1,000 and one of them finally caves, mumbling something about ˜insanity' and ˜at least making a profit'. Looks like the OBR (Order of the Boston Rounds), can't control their lackeys any more.

All that remains for me is to fly to Boston and track down the mysterious OBR. Also to get some of those famous ˜Boston Baked Beans,' oh and maybe some clam chowder. Mmm.

What awaits me in Boston? Will I uncover the truth behind the origins of the Boston Round? Why on Earth did I just pay my company one grand so that I could fly there? All these queries will probably never be answered. Because in hind sight, I'm pretty sure I just made a big mistake.