Professional vs. Amateur Shopping Cart Technique

 The COVID craze of 2020 gave birth to the rise of Instacart - and possibly other services - that created a new class of professional grocery shoppers. This class has not gone away and appears to be permanent, as I still observe them today.

I have noticed that the telltale sign that someone is shopping professionally is their shopping cart technique. The amateur grocery shopper, like me, pushes their shopping cart from behind. The professionals pull their cart from the front corner. This is the taxonomy as observed in the wild.

But ever since I've noticed this, I've been wondering why. I can't figure it out. What have the pro's learned that we have been blind to?

For one thing, being behind means that you're going into intersections somewhat blind. Peering from out front allows one to easily avoid accidents. But I don't think this is sufficient cause.

Secondly, the steering leverage using the "push" technique forces you to use two hands. The "pull" method allows for less effort and frees up one hand for consulting a grocery list stored on a smart phone. This is the most likely reason I've found to date, but is not entirely satisfactory... I often have a phone in one hand as I'm pushing the cart from behind, it works just fine. And is the saved energy really that important when the in-store workload is only part of your job?

This remains an ongoing mystery.

MST3K Mac and Me is on Youtube

 

The revived "Mystery Science Theater 3000" did "Mac and Me" a while back and if you haven't seen the newish season or are a fan of "Mac and Me" - or maybe you're into watching kids in wheelchairs fall off a cliff, you sicko - this is your chance: the episode is free on Youtube.

Game Grumps - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

The Game Grumps full playthrough of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for NES.

I think their debate about whether TMNT is a classic is worth noting. Arin argues that it is but Dan argues the opposite. I think it's the case of someone who didn't live it and wasn't there, having a different view from someone who was there.

TMNT (the game) was massive, it was a huge seller, every kid owned it (loosely speaking - I didn't own it, but you know...), and no one liked it aside from the fact that it was TMNT and that carried a whole lot of weight. I watched my friend play it and saw him unable to get past the Dam Stage (it's a cliche but it's a true story) and realized this game isn't fun, it's not at all in keeping with the fun/crazy spirit of the show. Konami/Ultra made a cartoonishly difficult game and tortured a generation of kids. 

So it's a popular game but not Great game, and not a Classic.

The perfect TMNT video game would come a bit later in the form of TMNT The Arcade Game (both the arcade and NES versions).

Anyways, they set out to beat the game and that was the draw to me and also made it worth posting. I don't believe I've ever seen anyone beat it or even get close to beating it. I may have never seen anyone get past the Dam Stage, in fact. I'm not sure.

RLM - Trivia of Terror

It's a game of horror movie trivia - Jay vs. Josh (the other Josh).

Scorch Update for February 2026

Scorch is always up to something but that's why it's ironic that the thing he's up to now is being retired. Except he's retired and working on a new App and there are subscriptions somewhere (facebook?) for a few dollars a month, or something?

WEIRD NEW-EWS!

RIP Robert Duvall

 Robert Duvall has passed away at age 95.

What a legendary actor. Time for the rundown. "The Godfather", "Apocalypse Now," "M*A*S*H", "The Conversation", "Network", "Tender Mercies", "The Natural", "Lonesome Dove", "Falling Down", "Sling Blade", "The Apostle", "Crazy Heart".

A few performance people not be aware of or may have forgotten: he was in an episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and "The Twilight Zone". He was also in Lucas' "THX 1138." He did a movie co-starring Bill Murray called "Get Low" - it's fine, it flew under the radar, but the movie doesn't live up to the cast.

And that's the thing, even in bad movies, Duvall was always good. I believe it was Roger Ebert who said that you could never catch Duvall "acting" - he always fully inhabited the character.

I would like to state my favorite performance of his but I would need to re-visit "Lonesome Dove" and "Tender Mercies" to really decide. It's been a long while. "Lonesome Dove" is Duvall's own favorite, by the way. For me, let's say, for any movie buffs reading this, my favorite performance of his is officially "The Apostle" but if we're all friends here and are able to open up without fear of mockery, my favorite may be "Days of Thunder." Sorry, he's just so good in it. A performance of his that astonishes me is "Sling Blade" - but I'm loathe to pick a "crazy" role as my favorite, it's also pretty brief.

Duvall on Westerns: "The Western is our genre in the United States of America. The English have Shakespeare, the French have Molière, the Russians have Chekhov, but we have the Western."

Norm Macdonald considered Duvall to be the greatest actor of all-time and got to interview him once. Here's that interview.