JULY

Exactly what is a calliope?

You probably know it when you hear it, but could you describe a calliope to someone and explain how it works? Of course, it's the watcha-ma-call-it that goes clackety-clack, toot- toot, boombah, gong-plunk at circuses and in the middle of merry-go-rounds.

The calliope, a mid-nineteenth century American invention, resembles a phantasmagoric organ, adorned by wooden figurines and caricatures of musical instruments. It makes its sound through pipes. But compressed steam, not air, blows through those pipes. The calliope was often pulled on a wagon at the end of a circus parade for safety's sake, in case the final sound was the KABOOM of an exploding boiler.

Named for a Greek goddess of poetry, the calliope used to be played from a keyboard. But today an automatic rotating cylinder is more likely to open and close the valves that govern the flow of steam.

Source: THE WORLD BOOK ENCYCLOPEDIA



Light on top

What bird grows to a height of 8 feet and can weigh in at 350 pounds? Who said a parakeet on steroids? It's the ostrich, of course. In addition to coming in the large, economy size, ostriches are hearty enough to tolerate temperatures down to about 20 below zero Fahrenheit and they can live to about age 50, even in the wild. Despite their size, captive birds can thrive on about $75 worth of food a year.

You say you think they do what? Shhh. At their size they're big enough to bury YOUR head in the sand. Their brains are small, but not small enough that they would do what people mistakenly think they do.

Source: THE NEW YORK TIMES



Didja Know...
One in five American teenagers believes that the US declared its independence from...France?!
(Source: NY Daily News)

Why do we chill white wine but serve red wine at room temperature?

One of the most gut-wrenching sights I have ever seen is a person I love dearly dropping several ice cubes into a stein of beer. Appalling! But then part of being an adult is coming to terms with the fact that those you love are not perfect.

There are also people who get a little cold-crazy with wine, making a slurpy-slush ice drink out of the best vino. Cease and desist, please! Allowing for a little variation in taste – careful, we're watching you – the whites go in the fridge and the reds are served at room temperature, or slightly below.

Here's why: Reds are fermented with the grape skin. This leaves them with tannins and other acidic components, the bitter taste of which is magnified by chilling, overwhelming the grape flavor. The skinless, tannin-less whites simply taste better cold. But remember, you're not going to skate on it.

Source: WHY DO DOGS HAVE WET NOSES? By David Feldman



Where are they now?

There were 30 acts at the original Woodstock Festival in 1969. Some of them, such as The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin and The Who, are legendary. But whatever happened to the Keef Hartley Band, Quill and Bert Sommer?

A little-known fact is that everyone was so wasted by the third day of Woodstock that Bing Crosby and Rudy Vallee did walk-ons, and nobody noticed.

Source: THE EVERYTHING TRIVIA BOOK

Who is buried on the moon?

What little bit of cleverness is this going to involve, you might be thinking. What have they been smoking?

Well, there's actually a straightforward answer. People have played golf on the moon, haven't they? If you can bury a putt on earth's satellite, why not a person? It's been done. His name was Dr. Eugene Shoemaker, an astro-geologist who, with his astronomer wife, discovered Shoemaker-Levy 9 Comet in 1994.

In 1999, NASA sent up a spacecraft to map the moon. It also carried Shoemaker's ashes (he had died, naturally). After the craft had plotted its last lunar coordinates, it was sent crashing into the moon.

In death as in life, Dr. Shoemaker had made an impact.

Source: JUST CURIOUS JEEVES by Jack Mingo and Erin Barrett

Do identical twins have identical fingerprints?

Identical twins must be sick of questions and jokes about their resemblance. After a while it just isn't cute to be referred to as "your doubleship," or to be asked if you and your sibling still play with "two-two-twains."

But at the risk of a four-fisted knuckle sandwich from some pissed-off pair, I'll take this one on. Identical twins are born virtually indistinguishable, mirror images from the same egg. But that's only the half of it. As they age, life leaves separate tracks on each in the forms of scars and more subtle markings.

It's the same with their fingerprints, which are very similar but also different on close examination. In addition to the influence of their environment after birth, they are even born with very slightly different prints due to chance occurrences in the womb, such as position, etc. - what scientists cryptically call "random events."

Source: NATIONAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY WEEK




Satellite moons earth

The moon, if placed against the continental U. S., would stretch from Cleveland to San Francisco. And it would make for a hell of an eclipse.

If all the soil lost to erosion in the U. S. - 3.5 billion tons annually - were put on a freight train, that train would be 474,000 miles long. With my luck, I would probably pull up to the railroad crossing just as the gate came down and the light turned red.

Source: MORE FASCINATING FACTS

Precision Flying
What insect guides its flight with special movement sensors?

True flies (order Diptera) can do amazing aerobatic stunts because they use a special sensor to detect tiny shifts and turns. They can hover precisely, and even fly sideways or backwards.
Most flying insects have four wings, but flies have only two. The rear pair of wings appears to have evolved into special movement sensors called halteres. Each haltere is a rod with a weight at the end and hundreds of sensory organs at the base.

During flight, the halteres vibrate up and down. If the fly turns left or right, up or down, or tilts either way, the halteres immediately sense the change and complex nerve circuits adjust many tiny wing muscles.

More about flies:
http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/course/ent425/compendium/diptera.html

Why are certain four-letter words obscene while other words that mean the same thing are not?

Gosh darn it; people do talk dirty these days. But what makes for a "dirty" word in the first place, when synonyms for the same thing are respectable?

Well, they say that it's the victors in battle who write the history of the war, and it seems that they write the dictionaries and etiquette books, as well. Those four letter words for body parts and functions are Old English, Germanic in origin and were spoken by the Anglo-Saxons. But after the Norman Conquest - 1066 and all that - the invaders from France made it clear that French, Latin-derived words for these things were refined, while the native Saxons spoke a gutter language. And in the gutter, it's stayed.

I can't, of course, cite examples. But some sports terms are four-letter words with only a single letter changed -- shot, puck, punt, pass, dart, pick and bunt, for example. Shoot, ain't that somethin'?

Source: A BROWSER'S DICTIONARY by John Ciardi



Didja Know...
The Indian epic poem the 'Mahabhrata' is eight times longer than 'The Iliad' and 'The Odyssey' -- combined?
(Source: AbsoluteTrivia.com)

Just how does a Venus flytrap eat dinner?

Here is the vegetarian's nightmare: a carnivorous plant.
That is not to say that you will ever see one of these cuties devouring a cheeseburger. As their name implies, they would rather feast on what your sandwich attracts if you eat it outside in warm weather.

A native of the Carolinas, the Venus flytrap grows in soil that lacks the nitrogen it needs. Enter the nitrogen-rich fly. And enter he does at the top of the foot-high plant where there are leaves that resemble two hinged lobes, usually open in a mouth-like array. On their surface are sensitive hairs. The fly lands on a hair, triggering the leaves to close, holding him prisoner. The plant digests the fly with fluids it secretes through the leaves. Yechhh!

And what if no fly comes along? Oh, I dunno, maybe the plant takes out a personals ad.

Source: THE WORLD BOOK ENCYCLOPEDIA



Didja Know...
The town through which Lady Godiva rode naked was Coventry, England
(Source: CET Trivia pages)

Why are those Congressional pleasure trips called "junkets?"

Some Americans object to their representatives using their tax dollars to go abroad, spending $250 on dinner with a companion hired from an escort service. Hey, spoilsports, how else do you think members of Congress can come up with ideas for new legislation?Such Puritans could care less why these investigative forays are called junkets. But for the rest of us: The etymology begins with the Latin word for baskets woven from rushes: "juncus." Junket, the custard-like desert older readers may recall from their childhood, got its name because containers of it were transported in such baskets. Picnics, as well, come in these baskets. Do you see where this is going? Eating sweet deserts, feasting and having a good time - everything that's not work.

Well, maybe we should bring these guys home where the worst they can do is feed from the pork barrel.

Source: DICTIONARY OF WORD AND PHRASE Origins by William and Mary Morris

What's the difference between an atoll and an island?

With summer coming on, many Americans probably think atoll is simply what they pay to cross the bridge to their favorite island. But it's worth knowing the difference between these two geological formations.

An island is a chunk of land surrounded by water. Think of it as resembling the piece of Danish you might drink with your coffee. An atoll is more like a bagel. It began as a volcano in mid-ocean. But then the volcano sinks below sea level, leaving just the coral that forms on the rim of the crater. Soil forms on top of the coral, producing an island- like circular formation with a lagoon in the middle. The formation, or atoll, found most often in the Pacific, is also referred to as a coral reef.

As I said, the distinction is worth knowing - unless you're a fish, to whom, I imagine, it doesn't matter atoll.

Source: BIG BOOK OF KNOWLEDGE



This is taking a year and a day

If you were on the planet Mercury, it would seem like a year or more from one day to the next. That's because Mercury, being close to the sun, revolves around it in only 88 days, completing one year. But it takes twice as long as that for Mercury to make one full rotation on its axis thus completing a full day.

If you were at the office on Mercury, the day would go even slower.

Source: FASCINATING FACTS by David Louis

In testing new medicines, what's the difference between a blind and a double-blind test?

What both have in common is a group of patients, some of whom get the new medication while others receive a placebo. The question is, who knows what was given to whom? (For purposes of this explanation, we ignore drug companies that stand to profit from these medicines, which approach the tests with eyes wide open and focused on their spreadsheets.)

In a blind test, the patients do not know if they got the placebo or the real thing. But the doctor administering the medication does know which went to whom. This keeps the patients from having a subjective reaction and skewing the results. But it's always possible the doctor could unconsciously signal to patients what they were getting.

In a double-blind test, patient and doctor are each in the dark. The doctor doesn't know to whom she gave the experimental whosamajiggie, and who swallowed peppermint candy.

Source: THE BOOK OF ANSWERS by Barbara Berliner



Didja Know...
Rock Elm generates the greatest heat among common firewoods?
(Source: Yahoo.com/Woodheat.org

Why might we say that someone who acts crazy has gone 'berserk?'

Obviously, because they remind us of Norway and its history, of Old Norse warriors, and especially of Old Norse itself, the ancient language of Norway.

In Old Norse, "berserk" meant "bear shirt" - a shirt made from bear skin, not a shirt typically worn by bears. It's what Norse warriors wore when they went into battle, earning them the name, "berserkers." These guys really went nuts when they took up the sword -- hence our modern meaning of berserk -- in no small measure because they first got stoned out of their minds by munching on hallucinogenic mushrooms.

Why, you ask, did they wear those bear shirts in the first place? Because their fathers did before them, and everyone knows you can't teach an Old Norse new tricks.

Source: WHO PUT THE BUTTER IN BUTTERFLY? By David Feldman


Didja Know...
The first non-human to win an Academy Award was...Mickey Mouse?
(Source: Ask.com)

Why do graduates wear those strange square caps with their gowns?

Those mortarboards are modeled after the biretta, a similar cap worn by church officials in the Middle Ages to symbolize their knowledge, experience and high place. With an optimism that borders on religious faith, the mortarboard states that the graduate has reached a similar point in life. The square cardboard was added to the top to keep the biretta's high crown from flopping on the grad's face (and extinguishing the joint he's smoking to get through the day).

Now here's what I really think: Like the beanies sported by fraternity pledges, those silly-looking mortarboards are worn by people pledging adulthood. Of course, once you get in, the parties aren't as good, eventually you're supposed to be monogamous, you can only watch your kids have food fights and work is worse than cramming for finals. Go out into the world? Not me!

Source: EVER WONDER WHY? By Douglas B. Smith



Didja Know...
Heinz, the company that proudly boasts of '57 Varieties,' actually sells more than 5,700 varieties of items in more than 200 nations? That number reflects the size of the company's product line in 1896
(Source: Heinz.com)

Why does the president of the United States work in an oval office?

Given the odd behavior of some presidents, maybe it's to keep from being cornered. But I have another angle on the matter.

When the White House was built, in the late 1790s, it contained several oval rooms, one of which, on the second floor, was used by early presidents as an office. But before there could be a TV program called "The West Wing," the executive mansion had to have same. Teddy Roosevelt added it in 1902, and the proponent of the "Square Deal' went to work in a similarly shaped office in the new wing. It was the next president, William Howard Taft, who turned it into an oval when he renovated, because people had come to associate oval rooms with the White House. (For the rotund Taft, the oval shape may also have been a matter of self-expression.)

Source: WHY THINGS ARE & WHY THEY AREN'T by Joel Achenbach



Didja Know...
When written in Chinese, the word 'crisis' is composed of two characters--one representing danger, the other representing opportunity?
(Source: Bartlett's Familiar Quotations)

Why can't you buy cashew nuts in the shell?

Whatsamatter? Are you unhappy that someone has already done the work for you, shelling the little things and sparing your fingers? If you really need to burn excess energy, c'mon over to my house, where there are weeds that need pulling.

Ok, ok: here's the truth in a nutshell. Cashews have no shells. What's more, they're not nuts. The cashew is a seed, just like sunflower and pumpkin seeds. They grow on shrubs and hang from cashew apples, which also taste pretty good. Anyone who tells you otherwise IS a nut.

By the way, don't believe the story about the elephant and the origins of the word, "cashew." You know, the elephant sneezed, "cashew," blowing the shells off the nuts. It's apocryphal.

Source: IMPONDERABLES: THE SOLUTION TO THE MYSTERY OF EVERYDAY LIFE by David Feldman



Didja Know...
The fear of lawsuits is called Liticaphobia?
(Source: phobialist.com)