See, I went the opposite way after doing the long box for a year. Yeah, it keeps things flat and tidy, but I found myself reading way less. Digging through a box in the closet just added a step I didn't want. My short stack on the nightstand, even with a few bent corners, meant I'd grab an issue during breakfast or before bed without thinking. The bends actually stopped bothering me after a while, they just look lived in. Maybe I'm lazy, but the barrier to reading matters more to me than perfect spines. Different strokes, I guess.

Ever notice how so much of the stuff we buy has the practical part hidden or buried, like the thing that makes it work is treated as an afterthought? It's the same with those roasts, the string is the part that holds it together, but it's tucked away like it's ugly or something. I'm guessing it's less about laziness and more about someone following a picture or a tradition they saw once, without thinking about the person at the table. Your mile may vary, but from what I've seen, a lot of these habits just stick around because nobody stops to question them, even when they cause a mess. It's a small thing, but it says a lot about how we sometimes let the look of a thing win over the use of it.