I was heading to work today, navigating the many mazes of mass transit in my fair city, when I spied a fellow commuter with suitcase in tow. suffice it to say this intrepid soul was taking the bus to the airport. Riding the bus is a fine precursor to airline travel, seems to soften the expectation of the latter.

Anyway, the man lumbered with one of the largest wheeled duffle bags that I'd ever tripped over. If it had contained food, a family of four could have survived a winter in the Sierra Madres with this rolling cache of consumables. I felt sorry for him, knowing all to well the bag would be battered, bruised and damaged in some way before its return home.

Stay away from giant pieces of luggage. Here's my geometry-based reasoning. Remember the movie "The Blob", the 1958 sci-fi thriller that starred Steve McQueen? If not look here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051418/

In reality any time you double the surface area of something, whether Blob or suitcase, you more than triple its volume.

So a huge suitcase, like the Blob, really can't support itself or retain any structural strength. The bigger the suitcase, the more likely the damage to contents and its exterior. The Blob really couldn't have supported itself, let alone have eaten Cincinnati; and that goes double for the over-sized duffle bag.