Bill Bryson’s wife knew his knack of creating misery for himself and putting others in trouble.So, to avoid being in such kind of a situation again ,she asked the children to take the lids off the food for Bill .She knew that if Bill tried to do that himself, then he might take it off in such a manner that the lid would be flying away to some part of the plane and the food might spill all over the place or on some passenger.