Lina asks: How do shellfish have sex? Shellfishly? *crickets* They don’t have any trendy, happening nightclubs. They don’t have flowers, jewelry, or boxes of chocolates. They have no Viagra, stiff drinks, or cheesy pickup lines. But that doesn’t mean shellfish aren’t getting lucky. Oysters, mussels, crabs, lobsters, shrimp, and thousands of other varieties of shellfish have their own unique mating […]
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Trevor A. asks: Why did Coke try to switch to “New Coke”? It turns out there was actually (if you squint at the problem hard enough), a semi-good reason for doing the switch. It didn’t work out, of course… But then, it kind of did work out amazingly well at the same time, as you’ll soon see. Now, before I […]
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Felix K asks: Is white chocolate actually chocolate? That depends on who you ask, but on the whole most chocolate connoisseurs would say no. Chocolate is a range of products made with chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, and cocoa solids, among other ingredients. Depending on the proportions of the cocoa, there are several types of chocolate like dark chocolate, milk chocolate, […]
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Steph B. asks: Why do Diet Coke and Mentos react with each other? If you’ve ever wondered why Diet Coke and Mentos react so strongly to one another, well, wonder no more. To start, it should be noted that it’s not just Diet Coke and Mentos that “react”; other carbonated beverages will also readily respond to the addition of Mentos. […]
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John asks: Why do people tell actors to “break a leg” before a performance? The term, of course, means “do well” or “have a great show” and is typically used before a stage performance, a show, or an audition. (I have never heard it used before filming a movie on any of the movies I’ve been involved with, but I […]
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Becky asks: What does the “G” in “G-spot” stand for? The “G” in G-Spot stands for “Gräfenberg”, after famed gynecologist Dr. Ernst Gräfenberg, who, among other things, had the “G-spot” named after him and invented the first known Ring IUD birth control device, the “Gräfenberg ring”. Dr. Ernst Gräfenberg was born in Germany on September 18, 1881 and received his doctorate on March […]
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Jesse asks: Why are the notes taken at a meeting called the “minutes”? Was this because the note taker records the notes along with the time? Not quite. In fact, the “minutes” here have nothing to do with time, but rather “small”, as in “minute” (my-newt). “Minutes” in this sense first popped up in the early 18th century, possibly directly […]
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Jack asks: Why do the British pronounce “Z” as “Zed”? It’s not just the British that pronounce “z” as “zed”. The vast majority of the English speaking world does this. The primary exception, of course, is in the United States where “z” is pronounced “zee”. The British and others pronounce “z”, “zed”, owing to the origin of the letter “z”, […]
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Stevo asks: Is “racking your brain” or “wracking your brain” the correct way to write that expression? There are some language guides, generally the ones that pay a lot of attention to the etymology of “rack” and “wrack”, that will still say it is “racking your brain” not “wracking your brain”, but these are becoming few and far between. In […]
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Amit Bhatnagar asks: Where did the American tradition of trick or treating come from? The vast majority of the traditions commonly associated with Halloween today are borrowed or adapted from four different festivals, namely: The Roman Feralia festival, commemorating the dead The Roman Pomona festival, honoring the goddess of fruit and trees The Celtic festival Samuin, meaning “summer’s end”, (also […]
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Ron asks: Why did people think the Moon was made out of green cheese? Because it was formed in the Milky Way… *crickets* In fact, nobody really ever thought the Moon was made of green cheese… Well, there are nutters out there, so it’s possible that there was at least one person who thought the Moon was made of cheese, […]
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Scott T. asks: Why are carved pumpkins called “Jack O’ Lanterns”? The name “Jack O’ Lantern” was originally one of the numerous names given to ignis fatuus (Medieval Latin for “foolish fire”), another of which is “Will O’ the Wisps”, basically the odd light that can occasionally be seen over marshes, swamps, and the like. (See: What Causes Will O’ […]
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S.Belsky asks: Where did the phrase “take a gander” come from? What the hell is a “gander” and why would I want to take it? As you are no doubt aware, but for those who aren’t familiar with the phrase, “take a gander” is an expression meaning “take a look”, “get a peek”, “check it out”, etc. It first popped […]
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Frank Hintz: What is the origin of the word “tip” (as in leaving a tip)? You may have heard that the few hundred year old definition of “tip”, as referring to gratuity, comes from “To Insure Promptness” or similar backronyms, but this isn’t correct. In fact, pretty much anytime you’ve ever heard of a word that originated before the 20th […]
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J.Kaus asks: Why are Grandfather clocks called Grandfather clocks? At first glance, the answer seems obvious. Think about it- when was the last time you saw a grandfather clock in the house of anyone under the age of 70? Grandfather clocks- with their long cases, pendulums, echoing chimes, and Roman numerals- seem to belong to the world of courting parlors, […]
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Byron asks: Why do women always seem to like to go to the bathroom in groups? Why do women go to the ladies room in groups? You might as well ask “What did John Lennon see in Yoko Ono? If Wile E. Coyote could afford all those Acme gimmicks, why didn’t he just order a pizza or Chinese food instead […]
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Rinni asks: Why are women sometimes called “sluts”, “dames”, and “broads”? Where did these words come from? Origin of the Word “Slut” “Slut” originally didn’t mean at all what it means today. For instance, in a diary from 1664, Samuel Pepys writes, “Our little girl Susan is a most admirable slut, and pleases us mightily, doing more service than both […]
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Danimal27 Asks: Why is Poker called Poker? The card game “Poker” first was called such around the early 19th century. Despite this happening fairly recently, it isn’t directly known how Poker got its name, but there are two leading theories that more or less coalesce into one very probable origin. The first theory is that it came from the name […]
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