Happy Hanukkah!

[conuly]

Went to the doctor with my mother. They had a menorah in the lobby, and they'd lit the middle light, which I know is right... and then the second one from the rightmost. Which... even if you know nothing and have no clear instructions, isn't it obvious that people generally light things like this in a row?

Clearly, whoever set it up is one of those people who pull eggs from the carton haphazardly instead of starting at one end and going to the other. You know who you are, and it has to stop.

***************

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Comments

[cosmolinguist]

I do not start at one end, I start at the edges and move toward the middle so that the carton isn't so easily unbalanced when I (or dyspraxic spouse) pick it up.

[beccaelizabeth]

this

[conuly]

Okay, but you at least have a system and do not work totally from random.

[amaebi]

Same.

[siderea]

I clicked through to say this. As someone who goes through a lot of eggs, I can attest that experience teaches this is the optimal approach for the reason cited.

[conuly]

I suppose it's at least better than doing it haphazardly, but I just want you to know that you're all wrong. Forget convenience, isn't it itchy to know they're out of the carton weird?

[siderea]

It's not about convenience. It's about safety and minimizing egg loss. And it's not out of the carton weird: it's keeping the center of mass of the carton right where we expect it, both visually and habitually, and where it belongs: right in the center. It is literally balancing the carton.

It's itchy to start, but you get used to it. Because it is clearly the one right way to do it. Now, seeing an egg carton with six eggs missing all on one side gives me hives.

[conuly]

Once I've taken half the eggs out of the carton, I cut it in half and throw away the empty side.

[siderea]

Okay, that's fine then.

[conuly]

Just takes up less space that way.

[gingicat]

My guess is that something happened to the first one from the right.

[calimac]

There are rules for what order the candles are lit, and even for what order they're put in the slots and which slots they're put in. If there's something wrong with one candle, you replace it, you don't skip it.

[conuly]

Note: This was electric.

[sporks5000.livejournal.com]

I thought that you were supposed to take the eggs from the middle and work your way out on both sides. Otherwise you end up with a container that, just by looking at it from the outside, you don't know how it will balance.

[conuly]

NO. Those aesthetics are all wrong.

[sporks5000.livejournal.com]

What about:

My cousin takes eggs from the left side and then when all the eggs in the first column on the left side are gone, she saws off the end of the egg carton to remove the first column. This continues until there are no columns left.

[lydy]

I do not take my eggs out of the carton haphazardly but I do try create odd pretty patterns when I do it. Starting at one and I'm going to the next is so boring. Possibly the actual issue is that my life is very boring.

[conuly]

A while back I was actually able to get a whole ton of fancy eggs - cartons of mixed blue eggs and brown eggs. Not a ton, but actually a gross. A little more than a gross, even, like 15 dozen.

Anyway, one day I took our currently used carton and carefully sorted the eggs so all the brown eggs were on this side and the blue ones were on that side. Not half an hour later I watched as Eva came into the room, took out the eggs, frowned at the carton, and then carefully sorted them so they were brown, blue, brown, blue alternating.

Your comment reminded me of that.

[archersangel]

Clearly, whoever set it up is one of those people who pull eggs from the carton haphazardly instead of starting at one end and going to the other.

my brother does that. and when i say something he's like; what's the big deal? and i tell him there's a logical way & you're not doing it!