THE LIST: How do you cut your sandwich

Have you ever heard the phrase, “the numbers don’t lie.” Maybe you’ve heard at a track meet that the clock doesn’t lie.

I deal mostly in words for my profession. People ask me about advertising. I know the basics, but we have wonderful professionals at Shaw Media who handle our loyal advertisers well. I deal in words, they largely deal in numbers — sizes of ads and how much they cost — so I usually let them do what they do.

It’s funny, though, how math can come into our daily lives. You know, the math doesn’t lie. I wasn’t ever good at math, however thanks to my sophomore math teacher who loved baseball and John Deere tractors, I knew how to figure a batting average a long time before I needed to do so for my job. Put the skill with something I enjoy and it suddenly comes easier. Maybe you’re the same.

I was reading a piece the other day that made me laugh. It asked the question of how you eat your sandwich. So, how do you eat your sandwich?

Growing up, I think I had grilled cheese sandwiches both ways — cut diagonally and cut down the middle — and I ate them the same. The cheesy goodness was the same.

This piece I was reading claimed that if you cut a sandwich diagonal versus down the middle, you have more crustless bites in your sandwich. I suppose they’re right. In reading other pieces, I’ve found that some restaurants cut their sandwiches diagonally for the visual appeal, as they say you can see what’s in the sandwich better. Another piece stated it has to do with the corners of the sandwich being able to cool down faster.

But then we come to the math. The piece I read, which was from NPR, said that if your bread is 4 inches long, you have 16 inches of crust for a square sandwich. Cut the bread down the middle and you have 8 inches of crust-free surface. Cut it the same way diagonally and you have almost 11 inches of crustless goodness. That’s big increase if the crust isn’t your favorite part of the sandwich.

There are lots of quirky things we do, right? I stick my pencil or pen in my ear lots of times so it doesn’t run off on me. Carpenters seem to do that to, I think. Some wear their watch on the inside of their wrist. I used to, but my smart watch won’t do it that way. It was easier to glance at. I saw someone one time who played guitar completely backward, meaning it was a right-handed guitar strung the correct way, but they played it left-handed and upside down. That takes some talent as the chord shapes become backward.

The lesson is however you eat your sandwich, go for it. I certainly believe there’s right and wrong in this world, but a thing like this isn’t the place for it. As they say, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Other items

Great job to all of our spring athletes. Spring sports is now in the books and it’s time to play ball. The track teams have a lot to be proud of from their performances from state track. As always, space gets tight in the paper, so we may run some additional photos from state track in the next few weeks as space allows. Nodaway Valley’s golfers also had a great season. It was neat to see the girls team make the regional final.

Same goes for our graduates. There was a huge number of this year’s class going into the workforce. College is expensive and it isn’t for everybody. It’s awesome to see schools acknowledging that and doing that they can to prepare their students for whatever they choose to do after high school, and I think our schools are on the right track with that.

Next week we plan to print our Memorial Day Honor Roll that we print every year, as we honor those who have served our country and passed away. Also, see coverage in next week’s paper of area Memorial Day services and a rundown of upcoming summer events you won’t want to miss around the area.