Do Penguins Have Knees?

by David Feldman

  One other crucial point. By making you fill out personal information for the refund, the marketer now has in its possession your name and address. Most companies retain this information in databases, and then can ply you with direct-mail campaigns.

  Why Do Grocery Coupons Have Expiration Dates?

  Why are some grocery coupons effective for only a few weeks? Why would the marketer spend so much money, not only in redeeming coupons but in placing them in newspapers, only to invalidate the coupons so quickly?

  Usually, the expiration date is added for the same reason a deadline was placed on when your term paper in school was due: Marketers, like teachers, know that you need a cattle prod and the threat of a deadly weapon to motivate you to act in the “right” way.

  Occasionally, a company might want to spur sales, either because the brand is in danger of losing its shelf space if sales don’t improve or because the company (or a particular executive) needs to demonstrate sales growth in a short period. As we have already said, coupons can be used as a preemptive price-cutting strike against new (or old but gaining) competition.

  But another, more important financial consideration plagues food marketers, one that threatened the financial stability of the airlines after frequent flier programs were instituted. F. Kent Mitchel, chairman of the Marketing Science Institute, explains:

  Expiration dates reduce the liability of the float. Only a small percentage of coupons are ever redeemed and a company budgets to cover the expected redemption. There are literally billions of coupons floating around at any time and if all the coupons that a company issued were redeemed, it would be an enormous unanticipated expense and could quite possibly bankrupt even a large company.

  To avoid this unsavory possibility, coupons are rendered valueless after a certain time by using expiration dates. It has been my experience that most major manufacturers will redeem coupons beyond their expiration dates if presented with the proper proof of purchase.

  Maybe. But will the supermarkets redeem them?

  Submitted by Linda Harris of Holbrook, Maine.

  Why Do Only Female Mosquitoes Eat Human Blood? What Do Male Mosquitoes Eat?

  No, the mosquito menfolk aren’t out eating steak and potatoes. Actually, the main food of both male and female mosquitoes is nectar from flowers. The nectar is converted to glycogen, a fuel potent enough to provide their muscles with energy to fly within minutes of consuming the nectar. Mosquitoes also possess an organ, known as the fat-body, that is capable of storing sugar for conversion to flight fuel.

  Male mosquitoes can exist quite happily on a diet of only nectar, and nature makes certain that they are content—males don’t have a biting mouth part capable of piercing the skin of a human. But females have been anatomically equipped to bite because they have an important job to do: lay eggs. In some species, female mosquitoes are not capable of laying any eggs unless they eat a nutritional supplement of some tasty, fresh blood. Their organs convert the lipids in blood into iron and protein that can greatly increase their fecundity.

  A mosquito that would lay five or ten eggs without the supplement can lay as many as 200 with a dash of Type O. Although we don’t miss the blood sucked out of us, this is quite a feast for the mosquito; many times, she consumes more than her own body weight in blood.

  But let’s not take it personally. Some studies have indicated that given a choice, mosquitoes prefer the blood of cows to humans, and in the jungle are just as likely to try to bite a monkey or a bird as a human.

  Submitted by Carolyn Imbert of Yuba City, California.

  If the Third Prong on an Electrical Plug Is for Grounding and Shock Protection, Why Don’t All Plugs Have Three Prongs?

  In the good old days, electrical plugs had two prongs and the receptacles were ungrounded. If you happened to use the wrong side of the circuit, it could be a shocking experience. So a simple and effective idea was developed: add a third prong. Don French, chief engineer for Radio Shack, explains the principle:

  If any short circuit developed in the wiring or device being powered, then instead of shocking the next person who touched the device, the third prong, being grounded, would carry the current until a fuse would blow. Now it is common to find three-pronged plugs on most portable and stationary appliances.

  Meanwhile, however, other engineers were working on “double insulated” prongs that do not require a third prong for protection. Although the third prong was rendered unnecessary, most old receptacles weren’t wide enough to receive the fatter prongs—another example of incompatible technologies that benefited the manufacturers (think of all the consumers who had to refit receptacles and buy new extension cords to hold double insulated prongs) and bankrupted the consumer.

  Submitted by Ronald C. Semone of Washington, D.C. Thanks also to Terry L. Stibal of Belleville, Illinois; David A. Kroffe of Los Alamitos, California; Margaret K. Schwallie of Kalamazoo, Michigan; Kurt Dershem of Holland, Michigan; Layton Taylor of Yankton, Michigan; and Robert King of Newbury Park, California.

  Why Does Menthol Feel Cool to the Taste and Cool to the Skin?

  Of course, the temperature of menthol shaving cream isn’t any lower than that of musk shaving cream. So clearly, something funny is going on. R. J. Reynolds’s public relations representative, Mary Ann Usrey, explains the physiological shenanigans:

  The interior of the mouth contains many thermoreceptors that respond to cooling. These thermoreceptors may be compared to the receptors for the sensations of “sweet,” “salty,” “bitter,” etc.

  In other words, individual receptors respond to specific types of stimulation. For example, a person’s perception that sugar is sweet is initiated when the receptors in the mouth for “sweet” are stimulated. Menthol feels cools to the taste because menthol stimulates the thermoreceptors that respond normally to cooling.

  Menthol has the ability to “trick” those thermoreceptors into responding. The brain receives the message that what is being experienced is “cool.”

  Although not as easy to stimulate by menthol as those in the mouth, the skin also contains those types of thermoreceptors, which is why menthol shaving cream or shaving lotion feels cool to the skin.

  Submitted by Allan J. Wilke of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

  Why Do Bridges Freeze Before Nearby Roads?

  Asphalt, used in most roads, retains heat better than bridge decks, which are usually made out of concrete slabs. But the most important reason has more to do with elementary physics. Stanley Gordon, chief of the Bridge Division of the Federal Highway Administration, explains:

  A bridge deck will freeze before a roadway pavement because it is exposed to the environment from both the top and the bottom sides. In contrast, a roadway pavement is only exposed to the environment from the top side.

  In other words, the earth itself provides insulation to roads. Any heat that accumulates in the bridge during the day will be released as the ambient temperature drops. As Amy Steiner, program director for the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, put it, “Bridge decks can release only heat absorbed by the deck itself and obviously do not benefit from the heat retained by the soil.”

  Submitted by Roger Mullis of Eureka, California.

  Why Can’t They Make the Flavor in Chewing Gum Last Longer?

  Call us paranoid, but we always suspected that gum manufacturers attended trade seminars on such subjects as “The Enemy: Long-Lasting Flavor,” “How to Make Sure Your Customers’ Chewing Gum Loses Its Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight,” and “How to Make Your Gum Tasteless Before Your Sucker Customer Has Thrown Away the Wrapper.” Emboldened by such rhetoric, the gum makers see dollar signs floating above their eyes and produce gum whose flavor lasts less time than a Zsa Zsa Gabor marriage. Naive consumers are then confronted with the imperative of plopping another stick of gum into their mouths to receive the flavor jolt they received all of, maybe, three minutes ago.

  But industry folks insist that the conspiracy theory ju
st isn’t true. In fact, Bill O’Connor, director of administration at the Topps Company, told Imponderables that if a company could create a gum that retained flavor longer, it would hammer this competitive advantage home in advertisements. Wrigley’s has done just that with its Extra gum, which uses “encapsulation,” little flavor pockets that require more mouth action than conventional gum to draw out its flavor. In essence, Wrigley created a time-release gum.

  But even encapsulation doesn’t beat the two main enemies of flavor retention in chewing gum:

  1. The saliva generated from chewing literally drags the flavoring (and sugar) out of the gum.

  2. The mouth gets fatigued and sensitized to any flavor eventually.

  O’Connor suggests that if you put aside a “used” piece of gum, eat a saltine to cleanse the palate, and then plop the gum back into your mouth, it will taste flavorful again.

  May we suggest an alternative: plopping a new stick of gum in your mouth.

  What Is the Purpose of the Plastic Bags in Airline Oxygen Masks When They Don’t Inflate?

  We’re always amazed when we find out that an airplane has been evacuated successfully during an emergency landing. The airlines try to do a good job briefing passengers on the safety requirements before takeoff. But a quick scan of the passengers will indicate that the seasoned fliers are already napping or deeply engrossed in the scintillating inflight magazine, while the less experienced tend to be hanging on every word, in a panic, trying to conjure in their minds how they can convert their seat cushion into a flotation device.

  We tend to combine the worst aspects of both types of passengers. We attempt to read our newspaper, having heard the announcement 80 million times, but we’re actually trying to suppress our fear that there aren’t really oxygen masks up there that are going to drop down during an emergency.

  All white-knucklers are familiar with the proviso in the safety demonstrations of oxygen masks: “Although the bag won’t inflate, oxygen is still flowing…” or the variant, “Although the bag will not fully inflate…” Several sharp Imponderables readers have wondered: If the bag doesn’t inflate, why does it have to be there? Our image of an oxygen bag comes from Ben Casey, where resuscitators inflated, deflated, and reflated as violently as a fad dieter.

  But the bag does serve a purpose. Honest. The mask used by airlines is called a “phased-dilution” mask. As you inhale, you are breathing in a mixture of ambient air and oxygen. Compressed oxygen is quite expensive, and particularly at low altitudes, you actually need very little pure oxygen even if the cabin is depressurized.

  A nasty little secret is that a bizarre cost-saving device, the “oxygen mask” used in safety demonstrations, is not the real thing (if you look carefully, on most airlines, the mask will be marked “DEMO”) and isn’t even an exact replica. The real oxygen mask contains three valves that are the key to regulating your breathing in an emergency. The first, interior, valve pumps in pure oxygen. When the oxygen is depleted, the valve closes and the second, exterior valve opens and brings in ambient air (thus the term “phased-dilution”). The third, external valve, with a spring device, opens only to allow you to vent your exhalation.

  According to oxygen equipment expert David DiPasquale, an engineer and administrative and technical consultant and major domo at DiPasquale & Associates, the normal cabin pressure is set to simulate the atmosphere of approximately 8,000 feet. The oxygen system automatically adjusts to different altitudes, varying the flow of oxygen. The higher the altitude, the higher percentage of oxygen (to ambient air) and the faster the flow rate of oxygen is required. During decompression, a plane may suddenly find itself at an atmosphere equivalent to the ambient air at 35,000 feet or higher.

  The bottom line is that there is no reason on earth why the plastic bag should inflate dramatically. The oxygen bag itself might hold about a liter and one-half of gas. At 18,000 feet, the system might pump in about one liter per minute; at 40,000 feet, about three liters per minute. But unlike the Ben Casey resuscitator, only a small percentage of this gas is inhaled in any one breath.

  At higher altitudes, the bag will noticeably inflate, both because the flow rate of oxygen is much higher and because the bag has a natural tendency to expand when air pressure is lower. As Richard E. Livingston, of the Airline Passengers Association of North America, put it:

  Since oxygen, like other gases, expands at higher altitudes, maximum inflation will be obvious at high altitude. Conversely, gases are more compressed at low altitudes, so little or no bag inflation will be evident at lower altitudes.

  Submitted by Charles Myers of Ronkonkoma, New York. Thanks also to Mick Luce of Portland, Oregon, and Stanley Fenvessy of New York, New York. Special thanks to Jim Cannon of Lenexa, Kansas.

  10 New Frustables

  We don’t claim to be infallible. In fact, most of the time, we are experts in fallibility. Too often for our satisfaction, readers confront us with fascinating Imponderables that we cannot answer. These Imponderables tend to fall into two groups: mysteries that totally baffle the experts we consult; or mysteries that every expert has an opinion on, but for which there is no consensus.

  Either way, our inability to answer these questions makes us frustrated. So, we throw Frustables (short for “frustrating Imponderables”) out to you in the fervent hope that you can do better than we can. It’s amazing how often you can, as demonstrated in the Frustables Update section that follows.

  To lure you into sharing your wisdom, we offer a complimentary, autographed copy of our next volume of Imponderables to the first person who can lead to the proof that solves any of these Frustables. And of course, your contribution will be displayed and acknowledged in the book.

  But don’t get smug until you see the new Frustables. Solving these will not be easy.

  FRUSTABLE 1: Why Do Doctors Have Bad Penmanship?

  Even physicians we contacted agreed that the stereotype is, more often than not, true. You wouldn’t believe how many theories we’ve heard to explain/deplore/rationalize/excuse this phenomenon. We have been able to confirm that no medical school in the United States offers a specific course on bad penmanship. So is there any other explanation?

  FRUSTABLE 2: Why are Salt and Pepper the Standard Condiments on Home and Restaurant Tables? When and Where Did This Custom Start?

  We look upon salt and pepper on the table as being as inevitable as the plate and silverware. But it didn’t have to be that way.

  FRUSTABLE 3: Why Don’t People Wear Hats as Much as They Used to?

  The comeback of the hat has been bandied about as much as the return of big bands. But it never seems to happen. We have millions of theories about this but no consensus has emerged. Have any Imponderables readers given up wearing hats? If so, why?

  FRUSTABLE 4: How and Why Were the Letters B-I-N-G-O Selected for the Game of the Same Name?

  Before bingo, many similar games existed with different names.

  FRUSTABLE 5: Why Do They Always Play Dixieland Music at Political Rallies When Dixieland Isn’t Particularly Burning Up the Hit Parade at the Moment?

  Do political consultants hire Dixieland bands because that’s what politicians have always done? Is Dixieland the least objectionable musical form? If so, why don’t you hear it more often on the radio?

  FRUSTABLE 6: Why Does Eating Ice Cream Make You Thirsty?

  Most of the taste experts and ice cream makers we’ve contacted deny that the premise of this question is true. But we’ve received the question several times and experienced the sensation ourselves. We even had a friend who loved malts and would drink one and then order an iced tea to quench his thirst.

  FRUSTABLE 7: Why Are Belly Dancers So Zaftig?

  By Western standards, belly dancers are rather fleshy around the midriff, surprising in artists who are constantly exercising this region. Experts we’ve contacted differ violently on this subject. Some say that the muscles contracted to belly dance are not those that would make the belly look Sheena Eastonish
. Some say that standards of beauty in the Middle East are different and that most dancers deliberately keep some flesh. And others denied the premise. What do you think?

  FRUSTABLE 8: How Was Hail Measured Before Golf Balls Were Invented?

  Okay, we admit we’re being facetious here, but we would be interested if any readers have heard hail compared to anything besides a ball (golf balls and baseballs are about all we ever hear) by local weathercasters.

  FRUSTABLE 9: Why Did 1930s and 1940s Movie Actors Talk So Much Faster Than They Do Today?

  Compare a Katharine Hepburn-Cary Grant comedy or a Bogie—Bacall melodrama with their contemporary counterparts, and they sound like a 45-rpm record playing at 78. What accounts for the huge change? We’ve heard tons of theories about this Frustable, too. But what are yours?