"All my life I thought air was free..until I bought a bag of chips” is a jocular line that has been printed on many posters. “I remember when buying a bag of chips was normal...now a bag of chips is 80% air..I thought air was free” was cited on Twitter on July 26, 2010.
“All my life I thought air was free, until I bought a bag of chips” was cited on Twitter on October 19, 2012.
Twitter
photographer
@Asstigram
I remember when buying a bag of chips was normal...now a bag of chips is 80% air..I thought air was free =/ must be hookah
1:28 AM - 26 Jul 2010
Twitter
keenon
@Orielus
Buying a bag of chips that has mostly air in it. AIR IS FREE. stop charging me for it -.- #ThatIrritatesMe
6:15 PM - 27 Mar 2012
Twitter
Sarcasm
@TheFunnyTeens
All my life I thought air was free, until I bought a bag of chips.
9:05 AM - 19 Oct 2012
Twitter
Men’s Humor
@MensHumor
All my life I thought air was free...until I bought a bag of chips.
8:40 PM - 23 Oct 2012
Mental Floss
August 1, 2013 - 9:30am
Why Are Potato Chip Bags Always Half-Empty?
Roma Panganiban
(...)
When products are stacked atop one another, crammed into tight spaces, or simply jostled around in the back of a delivery truck, slack fill serves as an air cushion that prevents potato chips from becoming potato crumbs.
That’s not just any ordinary air puffing up potato chip bags, either: It’s nitrogen. Oxygen can cause the potatoes to spoil and the oil to go rancid, and the humidity found in ambient air makes the chips go soggy. Instead, packages are filled with nitrogen gas to help the snacks stay fresh, which a trained panel of tasters confirmed in a 1994 food science study.
(...)
So while some extra space in a bag can help keep potato chips fresh and intact, any more than necessary might be the company trying to pull a fast one over us.
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.
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Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
This site is edited by Barry Popik.