For most people, takeout food is synonymous with a low-hassle, carefree dining experience. In short, you place an order, pick it up or wait for someone to deliver it, and then receive a bag with all the food, utensils and other items that you need. When you’re done eating, you can just toss the food […]

Nobody likes waiting in line, and there are few places that involve more waiting than the airport. From endless security lines to overburdened bathroom queues to slow-moving boarding procedures, air travel seems to be one frustrating queue after another. In fact, while waiting in one such line at the Fort Lauderdale airport, I thought of […]

I don’t use public restrooms very often, but in my limited experience, the overall quality of these facilities seems to be improving. Amenities like motion-sensing faucets and paper towel dispensers — which were once a rarity — have become quite common. There seems to be more attention to cleanliness, as well. With this in mind, […]

As I walked into the grocery store on Saturday, I immediately noticed a proliferation of fall merchandise. Between the large displays of pumpkins and the fall colored flowers, it was quite clear that the summer items had started making way for fall products. As luck would have it, I planned on buying some canned pumpkin […]

A few months ago, I decided it was time to replace the carry-on bag that I had been using for more than a decade. The old bag served its purpose well and was still in reasonable shape, but I really wanted something more compact, with better wheels and more pockets for storing smaller items. So, […]

My apartment building is holding a vote regarding some proposed policy changes. As part of the voting process, the members of the relevant commitee have been manning a table in the lobby to tell people about the matter at hand and get them to fill out a voting form. They also made a smart decision […]

Let’s say you just placed an order on amazon.com. You didn’t feel the need to print a receipt or confirmation page, since they always email you a copy of the order anyway. But after you receive the product, you decide it would be a good idea to have a printed receipt on file. So you […]

While perusing the frozen foods area at Trader Joe’s, I noticed a new frozen pizza that looked quite interesting. The signage indicated it was a new product, and I decided to give it a try. But to my dismay, virtually every box of the pizza was open on top. I finally found two pristine specimens […]

I consider myself fairly savvy when it comes to riding elevators. I mean, there’s really not much to it: go to the right bank of elevators, step inside the elevator car, choose your floor, and try not to get in the way of other passengers. But I ran across an elevator setup at a local […]

Chicago’s underground Pedway spans a large portion of downtown, but relatively few people even know that it exists. Over the past few years, though, the city has done a nice job at making the Pedway entrances easier to find. There’s a consistent logo and color scheme, and even a few signs that tell passers-by about […]