New from Heinz is Dip & Squeeze Ketchup: a box of 10 (27-gram) tublets of ketchup, each containing three times as much ketchup as a regular (9-gram) packet. The box calls that "3x more"; in Mr. Tidbit's book, three times as much is only two times more, but perhaps that's a quibble. In any case, it's a box containing 10 tublets totaling 9.5 ounces of ketchup.

The notion of the Dip & Squeeze name is that each foil-topped tublet is shaped vaguely like a ketchup bottle, and you can tear the foil at the narrow end (the cap of the "bottle"), to squeeze the ketchup out, or peel the foil back from the wide end (the bottom of the "bottle"), for dipping.

Admittedly, Mr. Tidbit isn't a big ketchup consumer -- that is, his consumption of ketchup isn't big; he himself is rather larger than when he was at his fighting weight. Anyway, as is often the case with so-called convenience-packaged products, he has a hard time picturing when it would be that buying these would make sense. At home, with a regular bottle, you can squeeze out as much ketchup as you want, for whatever purpose. And although the foil packets of ketchup you get at many fast-food places aren't great for dipping, they give them to you, whereas bringing your own Dip & Squeeze tublets costs you in the neighborhood of a quarter apiece. (The same amount of ketchup, from a 32-ounce bottle, costs less than a dime.)

Simply pay Because he isn't a frequent ketchup consumer (see above), Mr. Tidbit also hadn't noticed the relatively new Heinz Simply Ketchup, which seems to differ from regular Heinz ketchup only in that it contains sugar instead of the high-fructose corn syrup and corn syrup in the regular ketchup. Naturally, this costs you something in the neighborhood of 20 percent more per ounce. And no, sugar isn't that much more expensive than high-fructose corn syrup.

AL SICHERMAN