two fell swoops

Last weekend, Andrea and I went shopping around for refrigerators. I say “shopping around” because at this early stage in our potential refrigerator consumption, we went to a big appliance mart intending more to see what was available than to actually purchase anything.

The young man who guided us around the showroom kept suggesting large refrigerators. Andrea’s immediate response was to open the door of each of these models, reach in vain for the top shelf, and say something like “See, no.” Our helper was moved to admit that he didn’t realize how much his wife asked him to reach things in their kitchen.

But even the shorter fridges with reachable top shelves had a capacity built for that kind of Y2K-stockpile mentality that seemed, we agreed, distinctly American. So it was fitting, but no less hilarious to us, when the appliance specialist answered our repeated requests for something smaller with the question “Did you guys live in Europe for a while or something?”

Later, when I did some searching online, I discovered that the internet replicates pretty well this man’s association of small-capacity refrigerators with Europe.  (Though the more common term for 9-12 cubic foot refrigerators in the US is “apartment size”.)

Anyway.  Learning the subtle semiotics of refrigerators while shopping around for refrigerators somewhat mitigates the fact that you’re shopping around for refrigerators.  And for the record, we have not lived in Europe.  We live alone, we  like to eat fresh food, and we know that full refrigerators are more efficient than empty ones.  And our kitchen is tiny.