The Wise Book of Whys (15 page)

Why Superheroes Wear Their Underwear on the Outside

While there have been many fantastical proposed origins of this seemingly odd mod
ish style amongst comic artists -my favorite of which being that most superheroes lost their parents at an early age, so they had no one to tell them underwear goes UNDER your clothes -the true origin is pretty simple. According to Julius Schwartz (famed editor of DC Comics from 1944-1986 who edited the most famous of all external-underwear superheroes, Superman), this was simply modeled after the garb of aerial circus performers and wrestlers of the era in which the first superheroes proudly donned their underpants over their tights.

Now, it should be noted
here that the wrestlers, circus performers, and superheroes weren’t actually wearing underwear, but rather tight underwear-like shorts over their leggings. As superheroes are generally incredibly gifted athletically and perform amazing acrobatic stunts while crime fighting, it was natural enough for this style of dress to get adopted by the earliest superhero artists for their characters.

Two of the earliest major representations of this can be found in
Flash Gordon
(1934), which in turn was partially the inspiration for the garb of
Superman
(1938), with the principle difference being the colors of their uniforms and the fact that Superman had a cape (as far as I can find, the first major superhero to wear one).

Of course, if you still want to think of the superhero tight-shorts as underwear, given that Superman and others often wear their uniform under their normal clothes, it kind of makes sense.

Why Police Officers Are
Sometimes Called “Pigs”

Unlike so many other nicknames for the police, such as cops, peelers, and the fuzz, this particular term has a relatively well known origin. You see, starting around the sixteenth century “pig” began being used in English as a derogatory term for people, whether police or not, as it still sometimes is used today. It took about three more centuries, but this particular insult inevitably became a popular nickname for oft-insulted police officers, with the first documented reference to this being in the
Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit and Pickpocket Eloquence
, published in London in 1811.

In it, the pertinent line in question is: “The pigs frisked my panney, and nailed my screws
.” Meaning: “The officers searched my house, and seized my picklocks.”

Why Some Countries Drive on the Right and Some on the Left

The origin of this practice varies based on the time period and country, but primarily, throughout history, people used the “keep-left” rule. Only very recently did the world predominately switch to “keep-right”.

The first real archaeological evidence of a keep-left or keep-right type rule for a road originates in the Roman Empire, which shouldn’t be surprising as they built a lot of massive,
well-trafficked roads spanning Europe and thus would have needed to establish certain rules governing how people were to interact on the roads.

So which side did the Romans use
? Archaeological evidence suggests it was common for the Romans to drive on the left side of the road. One confirmation of this was discovered in 1998 where a Roman quarry in Swindon, England, had grooves in the road going away from the quarry on the left side that were significantly deeper than those on the right, due to the added weight of the stone. It is not precisely known why they would have chosen this side, but it is probably similar to one of the main reasons this practice continued into the Middle Ages.

During the Middle A
ges, the roads weren’t always very safe for travelers; meeting people coming the other way on the road was something best done defensively. From this, many historians believe the keep-left rule was adopted because, on a horse, if you were right-handed and you met some unsavory company on the road, you could draw your weapon, typically attached to your left side, with your right hand and bring it to bear quickly against the person who is going the opposite way of you on your right; all the while, controlling the reigns with your left hand. Then of course, if you happened to meet a friend on the road, you could more easily offer your right hand in greeting without needing to reach across your body when on horseback. Back then, people on horseback typically ruled the road, so everybody else followed suit.

This keep-
left rule was so common that in 1300 AD Pope Boniface VIII decreed that all pilgrims headed to Rome, from wherever they were coming from, should abide by the keep-left rule of the road along their journey. This held across most of the Western World until the late 1700s.

The
switch to the keep-right rule occurred in the eighteenth century when teamsters in the United States would drive large wagons with a team of horses, as the name implies. These wagons tended to dominate the streets and forced everybody else to abide by the rule of the road the teamsters were using. Very importantly, in many of those old, large American wagons, they did not include a seat on the wagon for the driver. Rather, the driver would typically sit on the rear left most horse, when the driver was right-handed. This allowed him to easily drive a whole team of horses with a lash in his right hand.

This forced the issue of having oncoming traffic on your left as the drivers would want to make
sure that no part of their team or wagon collided with oncoming traffic. When sitting on the rear left-most horse, this was much easier to do when using a keep-right rule of the road.

Gradually, this system
spread so that by the late eighteenth century, the first laws concerning this in the United States were passed, starting in 1792 in Pennsylvania, where the rule of the road was now officially a keep-right rule. This quickly spread throughout the United States and Canada.

So how did this spread through Europe
? It started with France. The reasons why the French switched to a keep-right rule instead of the traditional keep-left rule aren’t completely clear. Some say it is because the French Revolutionists didn’t want anything to do with something that a Pope had decreed. Others say it was because they didn’t want to use the same rule of the road the English used. Still others say it was entirely Napoleon’s doing. The reasons why he may have done this, if that is the case, are even more a matter of pure speculation.

Whatever the real reason, France switched to the k
eep-right system. Napoleon spread this system throughout the countries he conquered. Even after he was defeated, most of the countries he had conquered chose to continue with the keep-right system.

The most important of these countries, as far as eventu
ally further spreading the keep-right system, was Germany. Fast forward to the twentieth century and, as Germany conquered countries in Europe, they forced their keep-right system onto those countries.

England never adopted this method primarily because massive wagons, as became common in the United States, didn’t work well on narrow streets
, which were common in London and other major English cities. England was also never conquered by Napoleon or later Germany. Thus, they kept the classic keep-left rule of the road that had endured for hundreds of years before. By 1756, this “keep left” rule was made an official law in Britain, originally referring to protocols when traveling over the London Bridge.

As the British Empire expanded, this keep-left rule, as a law,
also spread somewhat. This hasn’t endured in most of the former British ruled countries, primarily thanks to Germany and the growing popularity of the keep-right system. There are still a few holdouts though, probably the largest of which, by population, is India. Although, if you’ve ever driven in most regions of India, you’ll know that any supposed “rules” of the road are more just extremely loosely followed guidelines.

Why Eating Asparagus Makes Your Pee Smell

The smell comes from the way certain chemical compounds in asparagus break down inside people’s bodies
. This is why cooking asparagus in various ways does not result in the same smelly by-product; the specific digestive enzymes that break down the compounds in the asparagus to produce the smell aren’t present until you eat the asparagus.

As to this specific resulting chemical compound that ends up causing the smell, it has long been thought that it is from methanethiol
. Methanethiol is a colorless gas that smells a bit like rotting cabbage. It is composed primarily of sulfur, but also includes hydrogen and carbon.

More recent research by Robert H. White from the University of California proposes an alternative theory
. White used gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to try to identify the cause of the smell and he concluded that it was actually from the s-methyl thioesters, specifically s-methyl thioacrylate and s-methyl thiopropionate. Thioesters, like methanethiol, are primarily sulfur based except they are formed from sulfur bonding with an acyl group.

In either case, the ability of a particular person to produce the necessary smelly compound in their urine after digesting asparagus was thought to be a genetic trait unique to only some humans until relatively recently
. Recent research done in France, China, and Israel, all independently showed this is not the case. Rather, all humans appear to produce the smelly compound, but only some humans can detect the smell; the ability to detect the smell or not is a genetic trait. Further, according to the study done in Israel, only about 22% of people have that genetic ability to smell the odor from the urine of people who have recently eaten asparagus.

Why Multivitamins Often Make Urine Bright Yellow

If you’ve ever taken a daily multivitamin you might have noticed your urine turning a bright yellow-ish color. Take your vitamins and eat some asparagus and you might just think you’re dying the next time you pee!

What’s happening is that urine will turn a bright, sometimes neon, yellow in response to excess riboflavin.

Riboflavin, also known as vitamin B2, is a common ingredient in almost all multi-vitamins. It was first discovered
in 1872 when chemist Alexander Wynter Blyth noticed a pigment in milk that was yellow-green.

In 1879, it was reported as lactochrome and lactoflavin. It wasn’t until the 1930s that the substance giving off a yellow pigment was characterized as riboflavin. (The “flavin” portion comi
ng from the Latin word “flavus,” meaning “yellow” or “blonde.”)

So why does riboflavin give off a yellowish color? Like almost anything that has color, it all comes down to light absorption.

Light, in general, is merely electromagnetic radiation. This radiation comes to us in a waveform and is classified by its wavelength. Shorter wavelengths come to us in the form of x-rays and ultraviolet light. Longer wavelengths come to us in the form of things like microwaves and radio waves. The light we can see is actually only a very narrow band of wavelength between 400-700 nanometers in length. The color is classified by the length. For example, 400-500 nanometers will appear blue, and 600-700 nanometers will appear red.

The colors we see are a result of the wavelengths not absorbed by the material. So if a materia
l absorbs light in the 400-500 nanometers range (blue) then the color we will perceive is in the 500-700 nanometers range (greens, yellows and reds).

Riboflavin absorbs
light strongly in the 260-370 nanometers range. While this falls outside of the light we can see with our eyes, it’s also Riboflavin’s ability to absorb light at 450 nanometers (the blues) that give it its distinctive yellowish color.

So why does it turn pee yellow? The answer is simply how the body gets rid of excess.

Approximately 50% of all excess riboflavin introduced to the body gets excreted in urine. Further, the maximum amount that can be absorbed in a single dose is about 27 milligrams, with half of that being absorbed in the first 1.1 hours. Given that the recommended adult daily intake of riboflavin is between 1-1.6 milligrams per day and some common doses of riboflavin in multivitamins (that I could find) are 25, 50, and 100 milligrams, it’s easy to see that excess amounts can be easily attained.

When this excess of riboflavin is present, the result is a nice bright yellow color to your urine.