She was carrying into a neighborhood Italian restaurant a stack of boxes. One was labeled “Cannoli Cream.” It had never occurred to me that somewhere I could buy just the filling.

I have read that in high society in antebellum New York flowers were never placed in a dining room because their perfume interfered with the food’s enjoyment.

The headline referred to “corporate profiteers.” While not always redundant, isn’t that always the goal?

In 2017-18, political action committees supporting business interests outspent PACs aligned with labor sixteen to one.

The promo on the public address system at a college basketball game was for a bus company. It told me that it had diverse vehicles that could fit any need and had “professional drivers.” Until then it had never occurred to me that some company’s buses were driven by amateur, unpaid people.

The wheels on the bus go ‘round and ‘round. By definition, can’t all wheels spin?

Until I heard that a hockey player was suspended for it, I had never heard of slew footing. Slew footing, however, must be the greatest name ever for a sports infraction. Surely baseball’s balk, basketball’s charge, soccer’s offside, and football’s pass interference don’t measure up. (But false start has some potential on the colorful front.) I am not a great hockey fan and don’t believe that I have ever seen it, but I gather slew footing is dangerous. When I first heard of slew footing, I did not know that it was a hockey term and assumed that it was something that happened at a dance in a Harlan County holler.

“Too many people seem to think life is a spectator sport.” Katherine Hepburn.

If you restrict your watching, as I do, to every four years, soccer can almost seem exciting.

The label on the inexpensive hairspray read: “This Product Has Not Been Tested on Animals.” That begged several questions. If it had been tested, for what? If it had been tested, how? I assumed no label ever says, “This Product Has Not Been Tested.”

I identify: The struggling writer told his significant other, “Don’t worry. My work will be remembered long after Shakespeare, Milton, and Dickens are forgotten.” “Yes, indeed,” the SO replied, “and not a day before.”

So far I have not undertaken the catalog of my actions that I keep promising to take to satisfy my curiosity. This is about those 50/50 actions of daily life, such as when, without looking first at what is the proper way to do it, I push/pull a door or insert a USB cord into an adapter or insert a polarized plug into an asymmetric outlet. I feel as if my initial attempt is wrong more than half the time. Could that be true? If so, why?