The Wise Book of Whys
Read The Wise Book of Whys Online
Authors: Daven Hiskey,Today I Found Out.com
| The Wise Book of Whys |
| Daven Hiskey Today I Found Out.com |
| Vacca Foeda Media (2013) |
The Wise Book of Whys
TodayIFoundOut.com
Copyright © 201
3 TodayIFoundOut.com
All rights reserved
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Produced
by Vacca Foeda Media, LLC
P.O. Box 1011, Gold Bar, WA 98251 U.S.A.
ISBN
-10: 1494337223
ISBN-13:
978-1494337223
In instances
where trademarked names are used in this book, where Vacca Foeda Media is aware of a trademark claim, the names appear starting with a capital letter.
DEDICATION
The practice of dedicating books to some person or organization has been around seemingly as long as there have been books. In many of the earliest instances, this was not only used to honor patrons of the author, but even sometimes as a way for writers to earn extra money by accepting funds from someone who simply wanted to appear in the published work’s dedication, often with gratuitous affection.
As writing books and other works became more lucrative
, particularly in the last few centuries, this practice gradually died out in favor of dedicating books to individuals of particular importance to the author.
With that said, I would like to dedicate this book to my wife, Verity, who only paid me a little for this mention.
Daven Hiskey
Gold Bar, Washington
November 2013
CONTENTS
Why One Bad Apple Spoils a Bunch
Why the Mass Avoidance of Some Business is called “Boycotting”
Why The Speed of Seafaring Vessels is Measured in Knots
Why “Auld Lang Syne” is Commonly Sung on New Year’s Eve
Why Cashews are Not Sold to Consumers in Their Shells
Why Some English Speaking Countries Pronounce “Z” as “Zed” and Others as “Zee”
Why Rock ‘n’ Roll Music is Called Rock ‘n’ Roll
Why Dalmatians are the Traditional Dog of Choice at Firestations
Why “Hank” is Short for “Henry”
Why Bathing was Uncommon in Medieval Europe
Why Tuberculosis Was Called “Consumption”
Why Some Coins in the United States Have Ridges
Why the Same Side of the Moon Always Faces the Earth
Why “Colonel” is Pronounced “Kernel”
Why Three Strikes in a Row in Bowling is Called a “Turkey”
Why Turkeys are Called “Turkeys”
Why Pistachios Used to Be Dyed Red
Why Toothpaste Makes Things Like Orange Juice Taste So Awful
Why A Typical Workday is Eight Hours Long
Why Red Meat Turns Brown When Cooked
Why Amish Men Wear Beards But Not Moustaches
Why The Toilet is Commonly Known as “The Crapper”
Why Carbonated Beverages are Called “Soft Drinks”
Why We Divide the Day Into Seconds, Minutes, and Hours
Why Lead Used to Be Added to Gasoline
Why a Gecko’s Feet Can Stick to Almost Anything
Why Garlic Makes Breath Smell Bad
Why There is Braille on Drive Up ATMs
Why Coke Tried to Switch to “New Coke”
Why We Call a Crazy Person a “Basket Case”
Why There is an Area of New York Called “The Bronx”
Why New York City is Called “The Big Apple”
Why You Generally Shouldn’t Put Metals in a Microwave
Why Soap Operas are Called “Soap Operas”
Why the Hottest Part of the Summer is Called the “Dog Days”
Why Men’s Bikes Have a Horizontal Crossbar and Women’s Usually Don’t
Why Potatoes are Also Called “Spuds”
Why Hair Only Grows to a Certain Length
Why Rice Krispies “Snap, Crackle, and Pop”
Why Your Nose Runs When It is Cold Outside
Why A Dollar is Called a “Buck”
Why It’s Traditional to Christen a Ship By Smashing a Bottle of Champagne Against the Hull
Why Coupons Sometimes Say They are Worth a Fraction of a Penny
Why Proper Sterlization Procedures are Used During Lethal Injections
Why When We Want Something Done Quickly We Say “Stat”
Why “Poindexter” is Slang for “Nerd”
Why Engines are Commonly Measured in Horsepower
Why Sideburns are Named “Sideburns”
Why Chemotherapy Causes Hair to Fall Out
Why Superheroes Wear Their Underwear on the Outside
Why Police Officers Are Sometimes Called “Pigs”
Why Some Countries Drive on the Right and Some on the Left
Why Eating Asparagus Makes Your Pee Smell
Why Multivitamins Often Make Urine Bright Yellow
Why Ambulances are Called “Ambulances”
Why It’s Common to Yell “Geronimo” When Jumping Out of a Plane or From a High Place
Why Association Football is Called “Soccer” in America
Why Certain American Football Games are Called “Bowls”
Why Homosexual People are Called “Gay”
Why Leaves Change Color in the Autumn
Why Breathing Helium Changes the Sound of Your Voice
Why Certain Types of Traps are Called “Booby Traps”
Why Voices Squeak During Puberty
Why You Used to Have to Use #2 Pencils on Scantrons
Why Pencil Lead is Called “Lead”
Why The Moon Looks Bigger on the Horizon Than When It Is Higher in the Sky
Why the Adam’s Apple is Called the Adam’s Apple
Why Zippers Have “YKK” On Them
Why The Toilet is Called a “John”
Why Lobsters Turn Red When Cooked
Why Your Stomach Growls When You’re Hungry
Why It’s Nearly Impossible to Tickle Yourself
Why Movie Advertisement Clips are Called “Trailers”
Why People On Planes and Ships Use the Word “Mayday” When in Extreme Distress
Why Getting Kicked in the Testicles Causes Pain in the Abdomen
Why Ferris Wheels are Called “Ferris Wheels”
Why One Bad Apple Spoils a Bunch
This isn’t just a popular metaphor, it’s actually true. One bad apple will absolutely quickly spoil an entire box of apples. The obvious way this can happen is simply if one of the apples is infested with some fungi or critters that reproduce and spread throughout all the apples in a box, ruining them as they go.
The less obvious, but perhaps even more common, way this can happen has to do with a hydroca
rbon chemical known as ethylene. Ethylene is a hormone produced and released into the air by most plants, including from the fruit of certain plants, such as apples, bananas, pears, etc.
So what does this have to do with one “b
ad” apple? The “bad” apple is usually one that is wounded in some way or is otherwise overripe. As a consequence to the wound on the apple, or if it’s just already very ripe, the apple in question will give off significantly more ethylene than normal. That ethylene accelerates the ripening process in the apples around it, which causes them to give off more ethylene, further accelerating the ripening process in all the apples in the box. In very short order, the entire box of apples will be overripe and eventually unpalatable for eating.
Humans have actually been using ethylene to control ripening processes since before we knew about the hormon
e. The first known instance of this was in ancient Egypt where they would slash figs and place them with other fruits and vegetables in order to accelerate the ripening process, with the wound stimulating the production of relatively large amounts of ethylene.
Today, ethylene is popularly used by banana distributors to partially ripen the fruit before the final distribution to stores
. Bananas are picked when they are quite green and hard. They are shipped this way to allow them to be in transit for longer periods, as well as reduce the chances of bruising during transport. Once they are at the local distribution warehouses, they are often exposed to ethylene gas in a closed chamber for 24-48 hours to drastically accelerate the ripening process, making them ready for store shelves.
BONUS FACT
Even if un-wounded, bananas put off large amounts of ethylene, relative to many other fruits
. In fact, if you’d like to speed up the ripening of some green bananas or other fruit or vegetables, put them in a paper bag together overnight. The trapped ethylene will quickly ripen the fruit, and the paper bag will still let enough oxygen in to keep the ripening process going smoothly. On the same token, putting fresh bananas in the same container as an overripe banana will drastically accelerate the ripening process of the fresh bananas, which is already quite a fast process.
On the flipside, if you want to slow the ripening of bananas, put them in the refrigerator
. Contrary to what you might think from seeing the bananas rapidly turn to brown and then black when placed in a refrigerator, this drastically slows the internal ripening process of the fruit. The skin will look like the banana is rotten, but the inside will stay tasty for up to about a week. So wait until a hand of bananas reaches the perfect ripeness, then plop them in your fridge to lock them in that state for about a week. No more bothering with the tiny window of eating opportunity normally presented by bananas left on the kitchen counter.
