Dashboard Dinning?

Recently I watched a segment on CBS Sunday Morning about a restaurant in Chicago that featured breakfast cereal. Yes, Cheerios, corn flakes and cocoa puffs are for sale by the bowl. One of the advantages of this type of purchase is that you can have a different cereal every morning and you don't have six or seven boxes going stale in the cupboard. However, the biggest advantage might be the fact that you can put a variety of toppings on your selection.

This report was really about the growing market in providing breakfast-on-the-go products or, as they refer to it in the food provider industry, dashboard dinning. Let me admit here that I have prejudice against eating in the car. I will munch on popcorn and sip a coke as I ride down the highway. I will also have a coffee if my wife is driving me to work. But eating table food is something I have to be in desperate circumstances before I will try lap dinning in the car. My feeling is if I am that much in a hurry that I can't sit at a table or a counter and enjoy my meal than I should delay eating until I can.

Evidently I'm in a small minority, since major food providers are battling mightily for their share of this growing and seemingly lucrative market. Offering everything from gourmet egg and meat sandwiches (their term, not mine) to our cereal speciality shop, many fast food purveyors are jumping on this bandwagon. My personal prejudice aside, I have to ask is this a good idea?

If you want to get into a passionate discussion at any social gathering, don't bring up the War in Iraq. Most everybody agrees that it's a total fiasco. No if you want spirited debate mention cell phone use while driving. You're going to get a series of tales that always include someone who has seen or heard of a multitasker who is doing one or more of the following things while driving. Can anyone be driving safely while they put-on makeup, change clothes, use an electric shaver, read the newspaper, read their GPS unit, conduct cell phone calls or make notes on a paper pad or their PDA? I don't think so. Although I will allow that if you on a lonely highway operating on cruise control, making a cell phone call is not all that dangerous. What I question is do we want to encourage people to add eating to this list of activities? And by the way, where do you think all of the garbage they are generating is going?