Some inventions manage to bring together in themselves the best of some things and the worst of others.
Shopping trolleys. Need I say any more?
I guess I'd better; that's what you pay me for.
Besides their obvious uses as makeshift billy carts and garbage strainers in stormwater drains, they are also useful for carrying groceries.
The average shopping trolley (what the Murricans call a 'shopping cart') seems to hold around 200 litres - that's a lot of canned sardines and t.p.
So that's the upside: after all, who would want to lug all that around in one of these?
But then you have the Mr Hyde persona of shopping trolleys: their legendary handling.
Can anyone out there get these things to track a straight line? Why is it that when you want to go forward, the trolley always wants to demonstrate its ability to crabwalk? And then there's that wheel which is locked into a perpetual shudder, rocking side-to-side, so desperately in need of a balance and alignment.
Who, you may wonder, ever decided to 'bless' the world with this four-wheeled wonder / terror? It was a grocer from Oklahoma, Sylvan Nathan Goldman. And panel-beaters around the globe have been rejoicing ever since.
Of course, shopping trolleys aren't all light and laughter. Though I can't help but marvel at how much the child in this cautionary poster looks like Al Capone, the message is serious: kids, sit down or get ready for a 4-hour wait in emergency.
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