The host of Good Eats, perhaps the best cooking show since Julia Child's best years, was held in a Kroger supermarket in Georgia for 45 minutes in handcuffs, threatened with criminal prosecution, asked for a $500 bond, investigated, and eventually released upon a promise never to set foot in a Kroger again upon threat of instant arrest and prosecution.

What did he do? He picked up a box of donut holes from a Krispy Kreme inside the store, ate two of them, and while rearranging his hand basket accidentally left the box on a shelf. He ate two donut holes -- for which the store readily admits they had free samples -- without paying for them.

This is so stupid. Not only would Brown have willingly paid for the holes had he realized they weren't still in his basket, he has filmed dozens of Good Eats episodes in Kroger stores with full on-screen credit to the chain.

What if a store employee had simply said, "Sir, you forgot your doughnut holes" and handed me the box before I had moved past the register and into custody? I would have been a thankful, happy customer. I have to think that this approach would have required a lot less of the store's manpower. They could have kept a loyal customer rather than losing one.

So what did I learn? I learned to not assume that I live in a world where a person can make a simple mistake without getting his picture taken in cuffs for "the record". I leaned that I don't like handcuffs. I learned that I'll have to find another grocery chain to shoot Good Eats in. And I learned that one should never, ever open a package of anything in a grocery store.

I'm glad there are no Kroger stores around here. They sound like unfriendly places.