eggs. The eggs in the boxes that say âmediumâ are small. Those marked âlargeâ are medium, and the ones marked âjumboâ are large, if youâre lucky.
When I decided to buy a new car several months ago, I went to the dealer whoâd sold me my last one. I liked that car and was ready to buy a new model. I drive a lot in New York City, where space is at a premium. The new model was six inches longer than my old one. That was enough to turn me off and head me toward purchasing another car. My new car is three inches shorter than my old one. These days, itâs difficult to get anything thatâs smaller than the model you already have. In New York, three inches in the length of a car can make the difference between getting or not getting a parking space.
Books are difficult to deal with because their sizes vary so much that they donât all fit in the same bookcase. Publishers ought to get together and decide to issue books in just two or three sizes. The books on my shelves vary from small ones, 4-by-6 inches, to fat volumes that measure
20-by-14 inches. The bigger ones are called âcoffee table booksâ because they donât fit anywhere else.
The newspaper I spend at least an hour reading every day is an inconvenient size. I donât know how they started printing a paper that when opened to an inside page, is twenty-eight inches across and twenty-two inches from top to bottom. There is simply no way to handle it comfortably, and I end up folding it all sorts of different ways. Just as I get the page how I want it, I come to the end of a story and it says, âContinued on page 22,â so I have to start folding again.
I realize this is sort of a ridiculous subject, but I started thinking about sizes and couldnât stop. What got me started was a copy of the new TV Guide . The editors (or maybe the sales manager) of TV Guide decided that the handy, Readers Digest âsized TV Guide was too small and they came out with a traditional magazine-sized magazine.
Next thing, I suppose Readerâs Digest will be putting out a magazine the size of Fortune or Esquire .
MERRY CHRISTMAS FOR ALL
Please donât greet me at this time of year by saying âHappy Holidays.â âMerry Christmasâ has the sound I like. I associate it not with anyoneâs birthday, but with all the great December 25ths Iâve spent in my life with my family. âHappy Holidaysâ is a wishy-washy, politically neutral substitute that avoids any religious connotation but doesnât have any of the warmth and intimations of joy that âMerry Christmasâ holds.
I donât mind those who think of Christmas as the birthday of Jesus Christ but I am not one of them. âMerry Christmasâ long ago left behind any religious implications it ever had. It has a meaning all its own that exceeds any specific association you could attach to it. We all know what we mean when we say âMerry Christmas,â even though it would be hard to spell out.
I donât dislike anyone on Christmas. Iâm with my family and sometimes a few friends. I love the togetherness of it. Iâve never been lonely on Christmas. I know Iâm lucky and even that makes me feel good.
In the early days in New England, Puritans opposed the idea of Christmas. They called Christmas âa Roman corruption of a heathen practice.â I donât know what the Puritansâ hang-up was over Christmas. Of course, there were a lot of crazy Puritans.
Christmas is celebrated in most European countries and weâve adopted some of their traditions here. The Christmas tree came from Germany, along with stollen, their traditional Christmas fruit cake. Aunt Anna made ours.
Thereâs a difference of opinion about where âSanta Clausâ came from. The most common story is that he was originally a fourth-century bishop from the area thatâs now Turkey. He was very
When I decided to buy a new car several months ago, I went to the dealer whoâd sold me my last one. I liked that car and was ready to buy a new model. I drive a lot in New York City, where space is at a premium. The new model was six inches longer than my old one. That was enough to turn me off and head me toward purchasing another car. My new car is three inches shorter than my old one. These days, itâs difficult to get anything thatâs smaller than the model you already have. In New York, three inches in the length of a car can make the difference between getting or not getting a parking space.
Books are difficult to deal with because their sizes vary so much that they donât all fit in the same bookcase. Publishers ought to get together and decide to issue books in just two or three sizes. The books on my shelves vary from small ones, 4-by-6 inches, to fat volumes that measure
20-by-14 inches. The bigger ones are called âcoffee table booksâ because they donât fit anywhere else.
The newspaper I spend at least an hour reading every day is an inconvenient size. I donât know how they started printing a paper that when opened to an inside page, is twenty-eight inches across and twenty-two inches from top to bottom. There is simply no way to handle it comfortably, and I end up folding it all sorts of different ways. Just as I get the page how I want it, I come to the end of a story and it says, âContinued on page 22,â so I have to start folding again.
I realize this is sort of a ridiculous subject, but I started thinking about sizes and couldnât stop. What got me started was a copy of the new TV Guide . The editors (or maybe the sales manager) of TV Guide decided that the handy, Readers Digest âsized TV Guide was too small and they came out with a traditional magazine-sized magazine.
Next thing, I suppose Readerâs Digest will be putting out a magazine the size of Fortune or Esquire .
MERRY CHRISTMAS FOR ALL
Please donât greet me at this time of year by saying âHappy Holidays.â âMerry Christmasâ has the sound I like. I associate it not with anyoneâs birthday, but with all the great December 25ths Iâve spent in my life with my family. âHappy Holidaysâ is a wishy-washy, politically neutral substitute that avoids any religious connotation but doesnât have any of the warmth and intimations of joy that âMerry Christmasâ holds.
I donât mind those who think of Christmas as the birthday of Jesus Christ but I am not one of them. âMerry Christmasâ long ago left behind any religious implications it ever had. It has a meaning all its own that exceeds any specific association you could attach to it. We all know what we mean when we say âMerry Christmas,â even though it would be hard to spell out.
I donât dislike anyone on Christmas. Iâm with my family and sometimes a few friends. I love the togetherness of it. Iâve never been lonely on Christmas. I know Iâm lucky and even that makes me feel good.
In the early days in New England, Puritans opposed the idea of Christmas. They called Christmas âa Roman corruption of a heathen practice.â I donât know what the Puritansâ hang-up was over Christmas. Of course, there were a lot of crazy Puritans.
Christmas is celebrated in most European countries and weâve adopted some of their traditions here. The Christmas tree came from Germany, along with stollen, their traditional Christmas fruit cake. Aunt Anna made ours.
Thereâs a difference of opinion about where âSanta Clausâ came from. The most common story is that he was originally a fourth-century bishop from the area thatâs now Turkey. He was very