–James Mahoney, Razor’s Edge Communications

Years ago, I was washing my hands in the office men’s room. Next to me was a wheelchair-bound guy washing his at the appropriately lower sink.

I was thinking that the lower sink was a good idea when I noticed that the paper towel dispensers were all at “regular” height. The water on the wheelchair guy’s hands would run down his arms when he reached up to access the towels. He and I both laughed at that.

“Yeah,” he said, “it’s what we call the 50% solution.”

The 50% solution came to mind the other day when I opened a box of enticing “Made in France” cookies. Inside, the cookies were packaged in four little cellophane bags. It’s a terrific idea. The little packs keep the rest of the cookies fresh, so you can savor the box-load over a longer term without worrying that they’ll get stale or soggy from humidity.

Curious about how far the thoughtfulness went, I checked the nutrition label. Serving size: 3 cookies. Cookies per cellophane pack: 4 cookies.

FYI, I exceeded the serving size by 33%. No sense letting a good cookie go stale.