Basic Physics

Sometimes I'll pick up my dinner at Whole Foods Market. One things annoys me, though. At the cashier, I'll usually have two plastic containers, one for the salad, one for the hot food. Invariably, they put the salad container on top in my bag.

Why? Because I'll be eating it first? Because salad is "lighter"?

Don't they realize heat rises and cold sinks? They don't know how long my drive back home is--by the time I'm there, both containers might be the same temperature.

Maybe I should tell them how to pack it, but it just seems obnoxious--it's only two containers. So instead, I change it in the car, tossing the well-placed food all around.

There must be some solution. Or am I making too much of this? I know, I'll move closer to the market!

Columbus Guy says: Here's what you do: 1) Identify the checker-outer bagger who is most environmentally sensitive. 2) Identify which bag material to which they have the strongest environmental objections, paper or plastic? 3) Ask for two of those bags.

(BTW, for a guy who's snarky about basic physics, you're awfully quick to discount something that I'll bet baggers understand, even if some of them can't tell you why: If you put the heavy stuff on top, you tend to get a lot of spilled bags and unhappy customers. Not to mention that there's probably a strong correlation between light stuff and soft, crushable stuff that tends to do better on top. Comparing all those "rules" to heat transfer leaves heat transfer on the low end of the order.)

LAGuy ripostes: I'm quite familiar with advanced bagging techniques. They don't apply here. Why do you think I put "lighter" in quotation marks?

1) Before bagging, the cashier weighs each container, and they tend to weigh about the same. 2) I'm only buying these two containers. I doubt they even come up to the halfway point, so issues of stability hardly come into play. 3) The containers prevent any crushing.

I'd tell ColumbusGuy to go back to his worries that Hillary's radical moves will alienate voters (see how Jesse answered you below) except, alas, I fear engineering is his strong point.


Columbus Guy says: Ah, LAGuy, you're going to hurt my feelings. I feel like such an idiot. Here I'm thinking these poor baggers are developing their habits over dozens or hundreds of customers a day, hundreds or thousands a week, and thousands and thousands over the course of a short time indeed. But when YOU come along, all that goes out the window, because, gosh, you've only got two containers--and they weigh about the same!

Tell you what I'll do, though. Tell me the containers are not transparent, so they baggers don't know what's in them, and I'll admit you've got somethin' mysterious goin' on here.

BTW, are "we" cruising along at 100 hits a day here? I say you should write more Oscar stuff.