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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Rebecca S. asks: The other day you answered why the Oscars are called the Oscars, now why are the Emmy Awards called “Emmy”? This one’s got a more succinct and well documented answer than the Oscar question. Pioneering TV engineer (and third American Academy of Television Arts President) Harry Lubcke suggested that the name “Immy” be used, named after the […]
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vipman.g asks: Why is there a light in my refrigerator and not in my freezer? While your freezer doesn’t have a light (or is perhaps just burnt out; you should check! ;-)), in fact, many freezers do have a light or lights. As to why it seems somewhat common for a lot of freezers not to have lights, there are […]
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The reason you can see eye floaters better when looking at, for instance, a bright blue sky, is because your pupils contract to a very small size, thus reducing the aperture, which in turn makes floaters more apparent and focused. Reference
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Barefootangel asks: “I read your report on honey and have a question. Yesterday (June 21, 2012) I went to a farmer’s market and while there I tried a teaspoon of raw honey. It left an awful taste and certainly did not taste like good honey. I helped my grandfather with his hives and know how honey should taste. After leaving […]
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Chelsea asks: Why are potatoes called “spuds”? Among other definitions, a “spud” is a “sharp, narrow spade” used to dig up large rooted plants. Around the mid-19th century (first documented reference in 1845 in New Zealand), this implement of destruction began lending its name to one of the things it was often used to dig up, namely potatoes. This caught […]
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Today I found out why iodine is added to salt. Iodine first began being added to salt commercially in the United States in 1924 by the Morton Salt Company at the request of the government. This was done as a response to the fact that there were certain regions in the U.S., such as around the Great Lakes and in […]
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Emma asks: Why does your nose runs when you cry? Well when you’re crying, if you find your nose running and your feet smelling, perhaps you’re upside down? *crickets* In truth, your nose runs when you’re crying because the tears from your tear glands not only drain out onto your face, but there is also a passage way in the […]
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Ali asks: What is the origin of Spelling Bee contest, its rules and regulation and interesting facts about it, the first winner, etc? Though spelling competitions were very likely around long before “spelling bees”, the first documented case of a spelling bee called such was in 1825. It wasn’t until a century later that the first National Spelling Bee was […]
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Carl F. states: During WWII, I saw my father go to get a physical for the Navy, when he returned home for a week before shipping out he had red ink on the back of his hand that took 2 or 3 days to wash off. He said after the physical if you passed they would brush red ink on […]
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J. Doherty asks: How do Honey bees produce a queen bee? I mentioned this in an article on Honey bees a couple years ago in the Bonus Facts, but for those who missed it, Honey bees create a queen bee for a few different reasons, such as the death of the previous queen bee, if the hive gets overpopulated resulting […]
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Jimmy K. asks: Can the great wall of China really be seen from space? That depends on what is meant by “seen” and “space” because the definitions of each determine whether or not the Great Wall of China can be seen from the heavens above. First, let’s look at whether the Great Wall of China be seen by the unaided […]
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Petyl asks: Where does the word robot come from? The word robot was coined by artist Josef Čapek, the brother of famed Czechoslovakian author Karel Čapek. Karel Čapek was, among other things, a science fiction author before there was something officially known as science fiction, in subject matter along the same vein as George Orwell. He introduced the word in […]
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D. Braxton asks: Is it safe to eat moldy bread or moldy cheese? For the quick answer to your question: no and sometimes. While not all molds are bad for you to eat, many are, and unless you want to whip out a microscope and meticulously identify the mold present on your food (note: there are 300,000 known types and […]
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Christine asks: Where are all the B batteries? There’s A’s (AA and AAA), no B, then C, and then D. Why did they skip a letter? There actually are B batteries, but they aren’t something you’ll usually see stocked at most stores any longer. Since the invention of the battery, there have been a pretty amazingly diverse number of battery […]
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Jack B. asks: Why does a person’s hair only grow a certain length and then stop, but then when you cut it, it will grow back to its maximum length? I very briefly mentioned this in an article about two years ago that you might also be interested in (There is No Difference Between Fur and Hair), but I’ll go […]
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E. Bondine asks: Where did the slang “chump change” originate? The phrase “chump change” first popped up in the mid-20th century, initially used primarily by African Americans to mean similar to what it does today, “a small or trivial amount of money”. As to how those two words ended up being joined to form the phrase “chump change”, we have […]
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Anna asks: What is a baby platypus called? They are called ‘baby platypus’… Really, that’s it (officially). A common misconception is that they are also named ‘puggles’, but this isn’t technically correct. I mean, you can call something anything you want and because so many people think that’s what they are named, they are often called that, but it isn’t […]
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