A couple of days ago, a group of us were eating at Chai. I somehow wound up with an extra pair of chopsticks. While goofing around, I expertly grasped three chopsticks in one hand, and openly wondered if such a technique could improve upon the efficiency of chopstick-dining.

I was roundly brushed off.

I’m not the only one to come up with this innovation, at least conceptually. Obviously, there’s an appeal among outside-the-box thinkers for bolstering chopstick dexterity by 50 percent.

And then, there’s the inventive contingent:

This prototype looks more like a mutated nutcracker than a chopsticks substitute. Whatever.

For the record, my inspiration for the third chopstick doesn’t match the motivation for these “triplesticks”. I’m quite adept at handling the traditional two-stick utensil, with no need for a third stick to stabilize the picked-up morsel. I just think the extra stick would be good for piling more food on. Maybe it could be used for compartmentalizing a typical Asian dish — the upper grab would hold vegetables and meat, the lower rice. Why not?

Of course, this triple-action move would be a good way to show off, start a conversation, etc. Anything to stand out.

Yes indeed, someone in the Sunshine State — Tampa, specifically — is driving around with a vanity license plate that reads: A SINNER.

The above picture is real, all right. It’s an artifact from my brief Florida visit last month. I saw the van sporting this plate in a parking lot one night, and whipped out my cameraphone to capture the evidence.

So needless to say, even though I’m saying it: If you’re in Tampa, and you see this van a-rockin’ — don’t come a-knockin’.