Pizza peril.

Last November I reported on the death of Ken -- Ken More, our top-freezer refrigerator that had served us faithfully for close to two decades -- and its replacement with W. Pool, a side-by-side refrigerator that -- most importantly -- would fit in the same space as the old one.

So, how's that working out?

Great! It's a nice cold fridge that has an ice maker and a water dispenser with a built-in filter. Keeps the food perfectly well. Looks nice too. In fact, thanks to my wife's new No Magnet rule, W.P. looks nice and neat outside as well as in.

But thanks to the new appliance, I had to bring a tape measure to the grocery store.

Even then, it was a close fit.

As you can see, the 12-inch diameter Screamin' Sicilian frozen pizza had to go in on the diagonal. I knew that would be the case, as the freezer is only 9 inches wide and I had measured the pizza box right there in frozen foods, but it was a tighter fit than I had expected.

Apparently side-by-side units are the least energy-efficient of the popular types, and yet they're still popular. So are frozen pizzas. The frozen pizza section of the supermarket is only second to ice cream in terms of freezer yardage. I can't be the only person who had trouble stuffing a pizza in the freezer. And no, that's not a euphemism.

Of course, I could have rearranged the shelves, stored the pizza upright, but nothing else in there is this shape. Unless you're stacking a bunch of them, you'll have wasted space. Still, for many families frozen pizza is a staple, and they would have no trouble keeping a stack of vertically stored pizzas in the freezer and eating them in turn.

I'm sure I'm overthinking all this. After all, we have proven that this freezer is a perfect size for frozen french fries, ice cream, and even -- gadzooks -- vegetables. I'm sure it would work well with cheapo pizzas in narrow boxes like Ellio's or Stouffer's French Bread Pizzas. But a Wild Mike's large pie is 14 inches wide -- and would have forced either the moving of shelves or the immediate consumption of pizza.

All I am saying: Give pizza a chance!

No; what I'm saying is that we have a compatibility issue between our pizzas and our freezer. Maybe this is the real reason people have freezers in the cellar. You think it contains large mounds of venison and boar from bowhunting season, but really it's just all the frozen pizza that won't fit in the side-by-side freezer. Mighty hunter indeed!