Why do Clocks run clockwise? (5 page)

George F. Cahill, of the National Flag Foundation, believes that a pole just isn’t as pleasing to the eye without something on top.

Spears don’t look good on stationary poles, and eagles, while visually appealing, are more expensive than balls or spears. Cahill adds another advantage of the ball: “On poles that are car WHY DO CLOCKS RUN CLOCKWISE? / 17

ried, a spear can be a hazard, not only to individuals, but to wood-work and plaster, and eagles are cumbersome and easily breakable.

So, the ball gives the pole a safe and rather attractive topping and finish.”

We speculated that perhaps birds were less likely to perch on a sphere than a flat surface, thus saving the flag from a less welcome form of decoration. But Cahill assures us that birds love to perch on flagpole balls.

We may never have thought of these balls as aesthetic objects, but
objets d’art
they are.

Why Does Wayne Gretzky Wear a Ripped Uniform?

Hockey players don’t tend to make as much money as, say, top basketball players, but surely the biggest star in hockey can afford an unmangled uniform. Can’t he?

Actually, Gretzky’s uniform isn’t ripped, and he is not trying to affect a “punk” look. Gretzky always tucks one corner of his shirt into the back of his pants, which only makes his shirt
appear
to be torn. The story of how Gretzky started this practice is a fascinating one, told to us by the National Hockey League’s Belinda Lerner: It began when Wayne was a young hockey player competing with older boys. His uniform shirt, if left out of his pants, would hang down to his knees. Wayne tucked the shirt inside his pants to give a taller appearance. Now Wayne, who is six feet tall, tucks in the corner of his shirt out of habit and superstition. Bill Tuele, Public Relations Director for the Edmonton Oilers, tells me Wayne has a piece of Velcro sewn into his pants so the shirt is securely fastened throughout the game.

Submitted by Lorin Henner, of New York, New York
.

18 / DAVID FELDMAN

Why Is There Always Pork in Cans of Pork and
Beans? Does That Tiny Little Hunk of Fat, Which
Is Presumably Pork, Really Add Flavor? It’s
Disgusting to Look at, So Why Do They Put It In?

Why Not “Lamb and Beans” or “Crickets and
Beans”? Why Always Pork?

Perhaps it will comfort you to know that yes, indeed, the pork is placed into the can for flavor. Pork and beans are actually cooked in the can. One fairly large piece of pork is placed in the can before cooking. After being heated during processing, it melts down to the size you see in the can, its flavor having permeated the beans.

We spoke to Kathy Novak, a Consumer Response Representative at Quaker Oats, the parent company of Stokely-Van Camp, who told us that they receive quite a few inquiries about the pork from fans of Van Camp’s Pork and Beans, including more than a few angry missives from those who opened a can that inexplicably did not contain the piece of pork. So there is no doubt that the pork does have its fans. James H. Moran, of Campbell’s Soup Company, says that many of his company’s customers eat the pork, while others do not.

Do manufacturers have to include a piece of pork to call the product “Pork and Beans”? Not really. Some producers use rendered pork liquid instead of a solid piece of meat, and are legally entitled to call their product “Pork and Beans.”

Submitted by Joel Kuni, of Kirkland, Washington
.

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How Do Military Cadets Find Their Caps After
Tossing Them in the Air upon Graduation?

Be it West Point, Annapolis, or Colorado Springs, the tradition is the same: at the end of graduation ceremonies, after the class is called to attention for the last time and the immortal words “You are dismissed” are uttered, the former cadets fling their caps in the air. Occasionally, hats will fly at sporting events as well. How are they retrieved?

The press and relatives grab a few. But the vast majority of the caps are claimed by children. Lieutenant Colonel James A. Burkholder, Commandant of Cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy, wrote that after most, but not all, of the graduates throw their hats in the air, “children under 12 are allowed to scramble to get [the hats]. It becomes ‘finders keepers.’ Keeping the children off the field prior to that moment is also a sight to see. Thus, 20 / DAVID FELDMAN

after graduation, you will see children with their ‘treasures’ and others, without hats, in all sorts of despair.”

Could the cadets find their caps if they did want them? Possibly.

Caps have a pocket with a piece of cardboard in the inside lining, on which cadets write their names with a felt pen. More often than not, however, the ink will have worn off or become smeared. As the graduating classes at West Point usually number about a thousand, the chances of someone actually finding his own hat are remote.

Is the hat tossing rehearsed? Choreographed? No. It is a spontaneous gesture, albeit a spontaneous gesture repeated yearly. Is it frowned upon? Not really. As Al Konecny, Assistant Public Affairs Officer at West Point, told us, there is nothing wrong with the graduates tossing away a part of their uniform—it’s no longer their proper uniform, anyway. They’ve just been promoted!

Submitted by Merry Phillips, of Menlo Park, California. Thanks
also to: Paul Funn Dunn, of WSOY, Decatur, Illinois
.

Why Does American Electricity Run on A.C. Rather
Than D.C.?

Direct current flows only in one direction. Alternating current flows back and forth continuously. Thomas Edison was a proponent of direct current (he had a financial stake in it), which worked fine in the early days of electric light, because the generators were very close to the lights that used electricity.

But as demand for electric light increased, D.C. proved inadequate.

Electric current loses the least energy when traveling at high voltages.

It was then uneconomical to transform D.C. to the high voltages necessary for long-distance transmissions. Direct current circuits would have required generating stations

WHY DO CLOCKS RUN CLOCKWISE? / 21

every three or four miles, unfeasible in the sprawling United States.

In 1885, a young man named George Westinghouse bought the U.S. patent for alternating current from inventor Nikola Tesla. Not only could A.C. transmit higher voltages more cheaply than D.C., the voltages could be raised or lowered by switching only one transformer. With its relative flexibility and lower cost, A.C. quickly became the U.S. standard.

Submitted by Larry Hudson, of Nashville, Tennessee. Thanks also
to: John Brandon, of Davis, California
.

What Is That Sniffing Noise Boxers Make When
Throwing Punches?

Listen carefully to any boxing match, or to any boxer shadowboxing, and you will hear a sniffing sound every time a punch is thrown.

This sound is known to many in the boxing trade as the “snort.”

A “snort” is nothing more than an exhalation of breath. Proper breathing technique is an integral part of most sports, and many boxers are taught to exhale (usually, through their nose) every time they throw a punch. Scoop Gallello, president of the International Veteran Boxers Association, told
Imponderables
that when a boxer snorts while delivering a punch, “he feels he is delivering it with more power.” Gallello adds: “Whether this actually gives the deliverer of the punch added strength may be questionable.” Robert W. Lee, president and commissioner of the International Boxing Federation, remarked that the snort gives a boxer “the ability to utilize all of his force

22 / DAVID FELDMAN

and yet not expend every bit of energy when throwing the punch. I am not sure whether or not it works, but those who know much more about it than I do continue to use the method and I would tend to think it has some merit.”

The more we researched this question, the more we were struck by the uncertainty of the experts about the efficacy of the snorting technique. Donald F. Hull, Jr., executive director of the International Amateur Boxing Association, the governing federation for worldwide amateur and Olympic boxing, noted that “While exhaling is important in the execution of powerful and aerobic movements, it is not as crucial in the execution of a boxing punch, but the principle is the same.” Anyone who has ever watched a Jane Fonda aerobics videotape is aware of the stress on breathing properly during aerobic training. Disciplines as disparate as weightlifting and yoga stress consciousness of inhalation and exhalation. But why couldn’t any of the boxing experts explain why, or if, snorting really helps a boxer?

Several of the authorities we spoke to recommended we contact Ira Becker, the doyen of New York’s fabled Gleason’s Gymnasium, who proved to have very strong opinions on the subject of snorting:

“When the fighter snorts, he is merely exhaling. It is a foolish action since he throws off a minimum of carbon dioxide and some vital oxygen. It is far wiser to inhale and let the lungs do [their] own bidding by getting rid of the CO2 and retaining oxygen.”

The training of boxing, more than most sports, tends to be ruled by tradition rather than by scientific research. While most aspiring boxers continue to be taught to snort, there is obviously little agreement about whether snorting actually conserves or expends energy.

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Why, in Any Box of Assorted Chocolates, Are the
Caramels Square, the Nougats Rectangular, the
Nuts Oval, and the Creams Circular?

Before we are inundated with letters, let’s square away one fact. Not all chocolatiers conform to the geometric code stated in the Imponderable above. But most do. Who invented the scheme?

Despite contacting all of the biggest chocolate makers in the United States, and some of the older smaller ones, we couldn’t come up with a definitive answer. Whether it was the venerable Thompson Candy Company in Meriden, Connecticut, See’s Candies in South San Francisco, California, or Whitman’s, all simply said that these shapes were “traditional.”

When most chocolates were dipped by hand, many companies put an easily identifiable code on each chocolate, usually in the form of a swirly script on top of each piece. At Whitman’s, for example, the code ran like this:

A “V” usually signified a vanilla cream center; flat-topped chocolates with an open “C” often indicated a chocolate butter cream center; dome-shaped chocolates inscribed with a closed

“C” would reveal a cherry cordial. Square-shaped chocolates with a “V” indicated a vanilla caramel center. An “O” stood for an orange cream; “P” for pineapple cream; and “R” for raspberry cream.

In the past, these fillings were coated with chocolate by a person who quickly dipped the centers in hot melted chocolate and then set aside the pieces to cool and solidify. Most boxed centers today are coated with an automatic enrober. Charlotte H. Connelly, of Whitman’s, describes the process:

In the enrobing process, candy centers are arranged on a moving belt which passes over a pool of chocolate which coats the underside. Then the centers move under a curtain of chocolate which coats each piece with precisely the right amount of melted chocolate…. In many instances, with the demise of the hand-dipper, the individual codes have ceased to exist. Although the shapes are

24 / DAVID FELDMAN

used by many confectionary manufacturers, this is certainly not industrywide as many boxed chocolates suppliers do not conform to these patterns.

How right she is. Most of Fanny Farmer’s creams, for example, are circular, but their cream caramels and walnut creams are square.

See’s Candies produces approximately 130 different pieces of confection. And although each piece does have an individual marking, only the most diehard customer could possibly commit them all to memory.

What the world is clamoring for is a visual guidebook to chocolate centers, to stop the needless despair caused when an innocent person selects a nougat when he thinks he has chosen a caramel. Excuse us, while we call our edito….

Submitted by Mrs. Marjorie S. Fener, of Hempstead, New York
.

Whatever Happened to Pay Toilets?

Going to the bathroom is one of the few activities that has gotten cheaper of late. Pay toilets used to be the rule in airports and bus and train stations, and one would often encounter them in gas stations and restaurants.

Pay toilets were never meant to be profit-making enterprises, but merely a method to help defray the costs of cleaning the bathrooms.

It was presumed that the dime or quarter “entrance fee” would mo-tivate users to keep the pay stalls cleaner.

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