recession. Consider Friday's lunch purchase. It was the morning after ladies night and I thought I would go for the fish at a little out of the way restaurant.

By the time lunch time rolled around I decided to take my fish back to my office and actually accomplish something. So here I was opening my brown paper bag at my desk with much anticipation and there it is again.

I've always wondered why people do this and it probably is one of the most blatant examples of waste that exposes Bermudians for having "lived too high on the hog for a long time'', as a friend of mine is always saying.

Looking up at me next to my fish and chips and cole slaw is a clutter of other items. There is my salt and pepper, my plastic fork, knife and spoon in a see-through plastic enclosure with a serviette.

I'm not exactly sure what I'm supposed to do with the spoon with fish and chips and although it took me a solid half an hour of meditation, I still was unable to remember the last time I used a plastic knife.

Never-the-less, the array of condiments that emerged from the bag was over-powering. I had been blessed with no less than three packets of Kraft ketchup, two packets of Kraft sweet pickle relish, two packets of Pocahontas mayo and Miss Pocahontas visited two packets of mustard on me as well.

Now, I'm aware that I run the risk of over-stating the obvious, but why would I need such an array of condiments, indiscriminately thrown into my bag, without the server asking if I wanted them.

We are spending a fortune on recycling and telling our children to recycle and yet here, Bermuda, is a simple business problem that could save merchants countless pennies over time, reduce waste, trim garbage and stop me from doing what most probably do -- most of the time they end up with the same problem.

That is, discriminatingly aiming the whole mess for the nearest garbage pail.

* * * TV It is always interesting to see who uses television advertising effectively in the Bermuda market. The bombardment of certain ads, tends to imprint ideas, words and even spelling on the brain.

That is not always for the common good, especially when the spelling is incorrect.

How many people were watching, noticed, or even cared, one wonders, when the television ads for this past weekend's Heritage Invitational track meet dominated local TV for more than a week with the spelling "I-N-V-A-T-A-T-I-O-N-A-L boldly emblazoned across the screen.

On more than one occasion, the TV technicians who were at the controls seemed to deliberately leave the picture of the spelling error on the air at the end of the commercial's run to give more people an opportunity to see it.

How many children will make that mistake in school this year and fail to understand why that spelling is wrong? * * * FLY Continental Airlines says those ham and cheese croissants with a chocolate mint cookie and four potato chips costs up to $40. That means the cost of snacking at 30,000 feet is too high for the airline and it is cutting out meals and snacks on flights of less than two and a half hours. The galleys used to prepare food take up space that might be filled with paying passengers. Also, there are storage, cleanup and staffing expenses. The airline has decided that people on shorter flights aren't going to get very hungry and don't need, and might not want, the high-priced food.

Air travellers and arm chair critics are straining to hear whether Continental is also going to cut the airline fare.