Food and Hands
There are few foods that require no hands to eat. There are grapes, I guess, where you can walk under the vine and grab them with your teeth. Anything growing on a tree or shrub is possibly hands free, actually, but what I'm talking about is the food you eat at home or at a restaurant.
The number of hands needed depends on the food. Sometimes its easy to judge the number of hands you'll need.
Example #1) A steak. Hand #1: Fork. Hand #2: Knife.
Example #2) An apple. Hand #1: Holds the apple.
Where we run into big problems is failing to realize the needed number of hands. There are many foods where, at first glance, the number of hands needed is ambiguous.
Example #1) Big sandwich.
Example #2) Half a cup of salted peanuts. (The ambiguity here being, do I cup them in one hand and pick each peanut up one by one with the other or do I roll them into my mouth, one handed, with skill and precision, confident in my coordination?)
Furthermore, one can land in hot water when no thought is put into the decision whatsoever. Let me recall for you the case of the sugar-dusted doughnut.
Case #1 - The Sugar-Dusted Doughnut
One time I ordered a doughnut at a Tim Horton's drive through. I was quite familiar with the doughnut I wanted: sour cream glazed. This particular night, however, they only had sour cream sugar (stupid name for a stupid doughnut). Little did I know I was about to consume a food item on the list of foods that require an ambiguous number of hands. They put the item in a bag for me and I drove back to my friend's house. I also ordered tea.
Without thinking I reached into the bag and pulled out the doughnut with my tea in the other hand. Immediately sugar flew everywhere. At this point I realized my mistake. I needed a second hand to catch the sugar that would fall with every bite. I put my tea down and tried to use the doughnut bag to catch the sugar. I was clumsy and knocked the bag over. I guess on the trip back to my friends house the bag had filled with sugar from the doughnut because there was sugar everywhere.
What it boils down to is, don't be stupid. Be careful out there and plan each meal. For goodness sake, use two hands for everything if it means saving yourself from pinching individual granules of sugar out from between couch cushions while you could be playing Halo.
-Daniel Greene
The number of hands needed depends on the food. Sometimes its easy to judge the number of hands you'll need.
Example #1) A steak. Hand #1: Fork. Hand #2: Knife.
Example #2) An apple. Hand #1: Holds the apple.
Where we run into big problems is failing to realize the needed number of hands. There are many foods where, at first glance, the number of hands needed is ambiguous.
Example #1) Big sandwich.
Example #2) Half a cup of salted peanuts. (The ambiguity here being, do I cup them in one hand and pick each peanut up one by one with the other or do I roll them into my mouth, one handed, with skill and precision, confident in my coordination?)
Furthermore, one can land in hot water when no thought is put into the decision whatsoever. Let me recall for you the case of the sugar-dusted doughnut.
Case #1 - The Sugar-Dusted Doughnut
One time I ordered a doughnut at a Tim Horton's drive through. I was quite familiar with the doughnut I wanted: sour cream glazed. This particular night, however, they only had sour cream sugar (stupid name for a stupid doughnut). Little did I know I was about to consume a food item on the list of foods that require an ambiguous number of hands. They put the item in a bag for me and I drove back to my friend's house. I also ordered tea.
Without thinking I reached into the bag and pulled out the doughnut with my tea in the other hand. Immediately sugar flew everywhere. At this point I realized my mistake. I needed a second hand to catch the sugar that would fall with every bite. I put my tea down and tried to use the doughnut bag to catch the sugar. I was clumsy and knocked the bag over. I guess on the trip back to my friends house the bag had filled with sugar from the doughnut because there was sugar everywhere.
What it boils down to is, don't be stupid. Be careful out there and plan each meal. For goodness sake, use two hands for everything if it means saving yourself from pinching individual granules of sugar out from between couch cushions while you could be playing Halo.
-Daniel Greene
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