Uncle John’s Impossible Questions & Astounding Answers (3 page)

The Japanese word for “check” is
atari
. It comes from a chess-like game called Go—one of the oldest board games in the world. An American computer engineer (and big fan of Go) named Nolan Bushnell decided to create a new generation of games.

In 1972 Bushnell and his partner Ted Dabney released the first commercially available coin-operated arcade game: Computer Space. (It was modeled after the pioneering 1962 video game Spacewar!, which had made its way to only a few college campuses.) But Computer Space didn’t really catch on, either—the directions were too complicated. So Bushnell and Dabney came up with a table-tennis video game that didn’t require directions. They called it PONG. “It’s so simple,” said Bushnell, “that any drunk in any bar could play it.” And millions of drunks did just that. However, few of them could pronounce the company’s name—Syzygy (although it might have been fun to hear them try). Besides, Syzygy (from the Latin for “conjunction”) was also being used by a hippie candlemaking company. Needing a new name for the company, Bushnell borrowed his favorite word from his favorite game…and Atari was born.

What does this have to do with Chuck E. Cheese, the pizza restaurant chain that features that creepy animatronic mouse band? In 1977 Bushnell invented that, too.

What private school was named after a brand of cigarettes?

What sad news sent a 35-year-old man named John B. Stetson on a journey that would lead him to invent the cowboy hat?

Waldorf Schools. In 1919 Emil Molt, the German manufacturer of the popular Waldorf cigarette brand, hired educational theorist Rudolf Steiner to create a new school for his factory workers’ children. Today, there are 998 Waldorf Schools in 60 countries.

Interestingly, nearly everything named “Waldorf” has a common ancestor: The cigarettes were named after New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, which in turn was named after its founder, William Waldorf Astor. Astor, in turn, got his middle name from his grandfather’s birthplace—Waldorf, Germany.

In 1865 Stetson was diagnosed with tuberculosis—his doctor gave him only six months to live. Longing to see the Wild West before he died, Stetson quit his father’s hat business in New Jersey and took a train to the plains. He was awestruck by the open spaces and the rugged cowboys, but not by their hats. Stetson knew he could make something better than those tattered coonskin caps, sombreros, and sailor hats.

Six months later (and still not dead), Stetson moved to Philadelphia and opened a hat factory. His first product: the “Boss of the Plains,” made out of beaver pelts. One cowboy raved, “It keeps the sun out of your eyes and off your neck. It’s an umbrella, a bucket to water your horse, and a cup for yourself!” Despite costing more than most cowboys made in a month, millions of Bosses were sold every year in the late 1800s. Stetson lived until the ripe old age of 76.

A white supremacist invented two of the most popular mail-order toys of the 20th century. Who was he, and what were the toys?

Harold von Braunhut. He invented and marketed dozens of mail-order toys, including two of the most famous: Amazing Sea-Monkeys and X-Ray Specs.

Born in Tennessee in 1926, his given name was Harold Braunhut. Raised Jewish in New York City, he later abandoned his upbringing and added “von” to his name to make it sound more German. In addition to holding 195 patents, von Braunhut once raced motorcycles under the name “The Green Hornet,” and later managed novelty stage acts—including a guy who jumped from a 40-foot platform into a kiddie pool.

Always looking to make a quick buck, von Braunhut earned his fortune selling cheap toys to impressionable kids (like Uncle John) in the back of comic books. Most popular in the 1960s and ’70s, and still sold today, Amazing Sea-Monkeys are actually brine shrimp. But X-Ray Specs really do let you see through bones and clothes! Actually, they don’t—they simply diffract light, causing the viewer to see a sort of aura around the object. Von Braunhut’s toys were junk, but his marketing skills were priceless. “So eager to please, they can even be trained!” he boasted on the Amazing Sea-Monkeys box.

For years, a rumor circulated that von Braunhut was a white supremacist. Turns out, it’s true: He sent a portion of his profits to the Aryan Nations organization, and was often quoted as saying, “Hitler wasn’t a bad guy. He just received bad press.”

Graphic designer Carolyn Davidson’s second-most famous design is for the wallpaper in a Yakima, Washington, motel. What’s her most famous design?

The Nike Swoosh. In 1971 the young design student was doodling in her accounting class at Oregon’s Portland State University. Impressed by her drawing skills, Davidson’s professor asked her if she could put together a few ideas for a symbol to be printed on his new line of running shoes.

That professor was Phil Knight. Seven years earlier, he and track-and-field coach Bill Bowerman had started an athletic shoe distribution company called Blue Ribbon Sports. Now they wanted to create a new kind of running shoe that could compete with the German brands adidas and Puma.

Davidson came up with a few ideas for the symbol. Knight wasn’t that impressed with any of them, but he chose one that resembled a curvy check mark. “I don’t love it,” Knight said, “but it will grow on me.” (He was right.) How much did Davidson charge him for the design? $35. Knight soon renamed the company after Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, who sat by Zeus’s side as he presided over the Olympics. Within a few years, Nike was among the premiere athletic shoe companies in the world, and the Swoosh has since become one of the most recognizable symbols.

In 1983 Knight gave Davidson a thank-you gift: 500 shares of Nike stock worth more than $1 million. At last report, she still hasn’t cashed them in, but is retired and happily volunteering her time at the Ronald McDonald House in Portland, Oregon. “I have a blessed life,” she said. “And there’s so much hurt in the world, I just thought I should give back.”

Do you have any idea how many things are happening inside you right now—churning, pumping, flowing, absorbing? It’s amazing…and at the same time, it’s kind of gross. Here are some questions about what makes us tick
.

Why do toddlers wobble?

What’s the largest unprotected nerve in your body?

You’d wobble too if your head were roughly a quarter the weight of the rest of your body. By the time you’re fully grown, your head will weigh only about one-eighth as much as the rest of your body, and therefore be a lot easier to hold up…unless you happen to have an abnormally large head, like Uncle John, who still sometimes wobbles when he walks.

The
ulnar nerve
is the medical term for the funny bone, which is neither bone nor funny, although you may find it “humerus” to see your friend writhe in agony after a bump to the elbow.

Why is it so agonizing? It’s a case of poor placement. The ulnar is one of the three main nerves that run from the collarbone to the hand. This particular nerve provides sensation in the pinky and the adjacent half of the ring finger. It also happens to be unprotected, meaning that there’s very little bone or muscle tissue to shield it from trauma. Result: It takes only a slight tap in just the right spot near the elbow to send your entire arm into a tingling frenzy. Interestingly, the temporary discomfort is very similar to the permanent discomfort experienced by sufferers of carpal tunnel syndrome, which affects the ulnar nerve where it passes through the base of the hand.