shopping carts and FSMism...
A grocery store near my place has had problems with people stealing their carts (as many stores do). Last year the store started putting yellow signs in the cart, and around the edges of the parking lot, saying that the carts would lock up if they were pushed over the edge of the property.
For a while I figured this was just a white lie to deter people from taking them, because there didn't appear to be any mechanism on the cart (ie. a brake) to cause this, nor anything along the edges of the lot. But a few weeks ago I tested that idea by deliberately pushing my cart to the parking lot edge. And the cart did in fact freeze up, so abruptly that it sent my groceries spilling out the bags. Dave was with me at the time and was quite amused.
I puzzled for a while over how the cart stopped in the apparent absence of any visible mechanism. And the the answer occurred to me.
It was the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Clearly, He is extending one of His Noodly Appendages, which are invisible, to grab the shopping cart and stop people from stealing them.
Seriously, it all makes sense. Grocery stores sell pasta, sauce, tomatoes, ramen, olives, and all kinds of other things related to pasta and spaghetti. The FSM would surely approve of such stores. And this particular store is right near the university, where there's many students who subsist on pasta and ramen, again, meeting with His approval. Also, Pastafarians are said to be common among university students. Stolen shopping carts would result in increased costs to the grocer, which would be passed to shoppers in the form of increased pasta prices. So the FSM would have a great interest in protecting the shopping carts at this store.
It's great how, in the absence of scientific evidence, invoking the supernatural can provide a logical explaination.
Praise be to His Noodlyness....
For a while I figured this was just a white lie to deter people from taking them, because there didn't appear to be any mechanism on the cart (ie. a brake) to cause this, nor anything along the edges of the lot. But a few weeks ago I tested that idea by deliberately pushing my cart to the parking lot edge. And the cart did in fact freeze up, so abruptly that it sent my groceries spilling out the bags. Dave was with me at the time and was quite amused.
I puzzled for a while over how the cart stopped in the apparent absence of any visible mechanism. And the the answer occurred to me.
It was the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Clearly, He is extending one of His Noodly Appendages, which are invisible, to grab the shopping cart and stop people from stealing them.
Seriously, it all makes sense. Grocery stores sell pasta, sauce, tomatoes, ramen, olives, and all kinds of other things related to pasta and spaghetti. The FSM would surely approve of such stores. And this particular store is right near the university, where there's many students who subsist on pasta and ramen, again, meeting with His approval. Also, Pastafarians are said to be common among university students. Stolen shopping carts would result in increased costs to the grocer, which would be passed to shoppers in the form of increased pasta prices. So the FSM would have a great interest in protecting the shopping carts at this store.
It's great how, in the absence of scientific evidence, invoking the supernatural can provide a logical explaination.
Praise be to His Noodlyness....