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A ramp for milk

2 Aug 10 | Re: Maddening cereal design flaw

Corn flakes are intended to be eaten with cow’s milk, I perceive. That is how I have always eaten them, and I know of nobody who eats them any other way, except sometimes made into crispy cakes or maybe some sort of Easter nest affair. What percentage of all corn flakes manufactured are eaten with milk, do you suppose? Ninety-nine per cent? Ninety-nine-and-a-half per cent?

And yet. I can’t be the only person who has found that corn flakes’ particular shape introduces a difficulty.

When one is preparing breakfast, one is often in a hurry. Typically, one wants to pour this milk on to the corn flakes as quickly as possible. But the flakes’ shape means that if you pour the milk on too quickly, they act as a ramp that guides splashes of milk back out of the bowl and on to the work surface. Annoying! I once boycotted corn flakes for about eighteen months purely because of this fault. Now I have bought another box and I just pour the milk on more carefully - when I remember. But there is no perfect solution, it seems. No matter how hard I try, sometimes I’m going to want a change from Rice Krispies, I’m going to buy corn flakes, I’m going to be in a hurry, and I’m going to splash milk on the work surface. Then I’m going to clean it up, as I am a tidy person. And then I’m going to have to decide whether to re-boycott the corn flakes, or be more careful, or resign myself to an imperfect universe, all over again.

Posted by ALBERTO DE AMANDO at 14:26

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