Something I Dislike

Those backpacks with the telescoping handle and wheels. You know the ones. They look like a cross between an impractically small suitcase and an uncomfortably designed backpack. You've no doubt seen them being dragged about on city streets, far from airports where contraptions with similar features belong.

My first thought is that such a blasphemous device must be for carrying heavy loads. Perhaps, then, they are designed for laptops. But don't laptops, with few exceptions, weigh less than 6 pounds? Are there really people out there who lack the physical strength to lift a laptop-containing backpack to its usual resting position? Or is this a engineer's solution for someone who has weak bones?

Although I can't exactly express exactly what it is about these bags, I find that there is something that strikes me as inherently wrong about having a perfectly good backpack, straps and all, and deciding, rather than transport its contents in the traditional way, to extend a three-foot handle and wheel the damn thing one to two feet behind you. This makes sense in airports where you must travel long distances across relatively flat land, and where there are escalators rather than stairs to enable you to get from one floor to the next. But out in the crowded New York streets? This just makes the task of navigating the already cramped sidewalks all the more difficult.

Worse yet, there seems to be no way to pay close attention to a backpack/suitcase hybrid's trajectory when it is being dragged directly behind you. As a result, people like me, minding our own business and perhaps wearing a backpack as it should be worn, get caught up almost tripping over the damn thing as it bumps and careens its way down the street.

All because you didn't drink enough milk when you were a kid. Shame, shame.