Bread in restaurants: why don’t they cut it all the way through? Instead, you get “slices” that stop about 7/8 of the way through, and then you have to rip off the rest. Is this supposed to make us feel more natural or something? However, we wind up having to plop our hands all over the bread just to get a piece off — so by the time the last person gets a piece, heaven only knows how many bacteria have managed to get passed around due to that bread. Just slice the f***ing bread, please.
Ditto English Muffins: the ‘better’ ones that are packaged as split (like Orowheat) aren’t split all the way through; there’s a little bit in the middle that’s still connected. So you always wind up with some nubby bit in the middle. I suppose it’s to keep them together, but is that REALLY such a big concern?
CD/DVD packages: there appear to be two kinds of jewel-case holders. The first type doesn’t hold on to the CD well enough and so it’s rattling around inside the package. That doesn’t appear to harm anything, but still it makes you wonder if it’s ‘broken’ when you buy it in the store. The other type, typical of DVDs, simply will not let go of that damn disc. You have to keep pressing down on the middle thingie and gently working your way around, and wondering if you’re going to get the disc out or you’re going to break it instead. (Which has happened.) More and more I’m in favor of the approach that puts the CD into a little paper sleeve and then encloses that in the jewel case or even a cardboard housing. EXCEPT: the cardboard housing is often just a little bit too small, and you have to wrestle the CD out. Oh, why can’t they get this right? Well, I guess it doesn’t matter that much any more, with CDs quickly becoming obsolete due to online downloads. As long as they include the liner notes/booklet along with the download (which iTunes is doing more and more these days), I’m happy.
Well, I hope that iTunes will start offering higher bit-rate downloads or maybe even Apple Lossless, because you definitely can hear the difference between an iTunes AAC file and a nicely-ripped CD at 192 bits. Still, the future is clear enough, isn’t it?