A Bag Thought

Another simple thought, this time on bags. The space inside any bag I have ever possessed ends up being apportioned as above. 'Dross', helpfully defined by the OED as: 'rubbish, refuse, foreign matter mixed with anything', takes up the lion's share of the interior, whilst the 'useful stuff' is compacted into a quite narrow layer at the base of the bag.Somewhere at the bottom of that may be found house keys. It's positively geological. Attempts to be more organised, ie: the acquisition of bags with pockets, sections, divisions, seem just to result in each and every compartment developing a similar stratification. Which explains why I have, on occasional ill-lit nights, been forced to empty out the entire contents of the current bag on my doorstep in order to gain access to bath and bed. 

(There is more, much more and much better material, on handbags (or 'purses', as they are known in the States), in Nora Ephron's very funny essay, 'I Hate My Purse', from her book, 'I Feel Bad About My Neck' (Doubleday, 2007).)