Do Elephants Jump?

by David Feldman

  The brouhaha over the resurrection of the sun disc flag proves that it had become an icon in Japanese culture. Even for those who disagreed with making the Hinomaru the official flag, the symbol became worth fighting for.

  Submitted by Dr. J. S. Hubar of New Orleans, Louisiana.

  Why Do We “See Stars” When We Bump Our Head?

  Want to see stars? We heartily recommend going to the countryside, where there are few lights, and looking up, especially on a cloudless night. As Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller so eloquently phrased it in their song “On Broadway,” “At night the stars put on a show for free.”

  If looking up in the sky isn’t edgy enough for you, you can try conking your cranium. Not that it costs anything to bump your head, except potential medical bills. But a knock on the noggin isn’t as reliable as the sky or a visit to the local observatory — you may or may not see stars. And then there’s the little matter of the ensuing headache.

  We consulted with several neuro-ophthalmologists, as we weren’t sure whether we saw stars because of damage to the eye or damage to the brain. As it turns out, there is a bit of controversy on the subject, but most agree that most of the time, the “eyes have it.”

  Lenworth Johnson, a neuro-ophthalmologist at the Mason Eye Insitute at the University of Missouri, Columbia, wrote to us that when you bump your head, you shake the vitreous gel in the eye. The vitreous gel, also known as the vitreous humor, is a transparent, colorless jelly that fills the eyeball behind the lens (front part) of the eye. The vitreous, which is adherent to the underlying retina, then “jiggles the retina.” The retina is the sensing element of the eye that sends information to the brain about light, color, and brightness. This jiggling sends the signal of stars to the brain. As Johnson analogizes it:

  This is equivalent to having your skin squeezed and reporting pain or other sensation because of the nerves in the skin sensing the touch.

  The jostling of the retina doesn’t translate to pain, though, as Scott Forman, associate professor of ophthalmology, neurology, and neuro-surgery at New York Medical College, explains:

  Seeing stars after a head injury probably refers to what is known in the profession as “Moore’s lightning streaks.” A gentleman by that name coined the term to refer to the visual disturbances arising from sudden acceleration/deceleration of the eyeball (that accompanies a blow to the head). This produces a gravitational force exerted on the vitreous body, or vitreous humor.

  When the vitreous tugs on the retina, as it would if a sudden force is applied to it, the retina wrinkles ever so slightly. The mechanical deformation of the retina is not felt as pain, since there are no pain fibers in the retina. However, it sets off, most likely, a wave of depolarization, a change in the electrical charge or electrical activity of the photoreceptor layers, those layers of the retina containing the elements that receive light from our environment. The mechanical deformation has the same effect as light entering the retina. That is, it sends a signal to the optic nerve and hence the visual brain (the occipital lobe, eventually, and other visual “association areas” in the brain) that we interpret as spots of light, sparkles, lightning, or whatever.

  If you want to see someone else see stars, your best shot is a Warner Brothers cartoon — many an occipital lobe has been banged by a hammer in cartoons. But athletes, accident victims, and crime sufferers who undergo concussions (the soft brain knocking against the hard surface of the skull) also often see stars. One study indicated that nearly 30 percent of athletes who suffered head injuries from direct impact saw stars or unusual colors. Epileptics sometimes see stars during seizures, and sometimes after them.

  So you can see stars by disturbing the brain directly, and leaving out the “middle man” (the retina), but chances are that, unlike bunnies in a cartoon, any bop on the head that is strong enough to make you see stars is sufficient to send you to an emergency room.

  Submitted by Stu Levy of Seattle, Washington.

  How Is the Maximum Occupancy for a Public Room Determined?

  In our first book, Imponderables, we pondered who in an elevator was responsible for determining the weight of fellow passengers. Just as elevators have posted weight limits, so do public rooms have signs indicating the maximum occupancy permitted by law. Somehow, the numbers have always seemed capricious. Why are nightclubs packed to the gills, while our book signings look like ghost towns? (We’re assuming that throngs of folks are kept at bay at the bookstore door to avoid overcrowding and overzealous fans.)

  At the most basic level, the determination of occupancy load is cut and dried. As architect Norman Cox, of New York’s Franke, Gottsegen, Cox Architects told us:

  The most common method is to divide the total floor area by some specified quantity of square feet per person in order to determine the maximum number of occupants. This quantity varies usually between four and twelve square feet per person, depending on seating type. For example, in a restaurant with tables and loose chairs, the occupancy of a 1,200-square-foot room might be 1,200 divided by 12, equaling 100 persons.

  Maura Gatensby, a Vancouver, Canada, architect, shared some of the occupant loads for her area (numbers have been converted from square meters to square feet and rounded off to the nearest hundredth of a square foot):

  standing space — 4.30 square feet per person

  grandstands — 6.45 square feet per person

  bowling alleys and pool halls — 100.10 square feet per person

  classrooms — 19.91 square feet per person

  dining rooms, cafeterias, and bars — 12.91 square feet per person

  shops — 49.513 square feet per person

  offices — 100.10 square feet per person

  The square footage allocated per person partly determines everything from the required numbers of exits and resources for handicapped persons to the number of washroom fixtures in the lavatories. Depending upon the locality, the police or fire department might enforce these rules.

  There is no single standard for building codes — states might use BOCA (Building Officials and Code Administrators), UBC (Universal Building Code), or SBC (Standard Building Code). Big cities tend to have their own codes, and might use one of these three codes as a model and modify it.

  Fire departments can exert pressure on buildings, too. In some localities, if a fire department finds that the sprinkler system in a building isn’t adequate, or that the stairways are not wide enough to handle emergency situations, the occupancy load of a building can be reduced from the norm.

  The insurance industry is breathing down the neck of contractors and facility owners, as well. Even if the city building officials and fire departments sign off on an occupancy load, an insurance company might not be willing to underwrite insurance unless stricter guidelines are enforced. In many businesses, more bodies in a room mean more moolah, so the push and pull of commerce with safety and insurance is a never-ending battle.

  Submitted by Stephanie Englin of Tukwila, Washington.

  Why Do Teddy Bears Frown?

  Considering that the toy business is full of sugarcoated images for children, and the happy face is the default countenance for dolls and most stuffed animals, we’ve often wondered why teddy bears are downright dour. So we contacted teddy bear artists, designers and manufacturers, hardcore collectors, and folks who write about teddy bears for a living to illuminate exactly what is bumming out stuffed bears.

  Strangely, the first teddy bears were made in Germany and the United States in the same year — 1902. Mindy Kinsey, editor of Teddy Bear and Friends magazine, picks up the story. At the beginning, at least, teddy bears were designed to appear realistic:

  In Germany, they were modeled after bears Richard Steiff saw in the zoo and at the circus. In America, teddies were inspired by the bears Theodore Roosevelt hunted (and in a particularly famous instance, failed to shoot) and were named after the president himself.

  Early teddies, therefore, had long muzzles, long arms, humped backs, and small ear
s, much like the real thing. Their mouths tended to be straight embroidered lines that might appear to frown, but were only meant to mimic their real-life counterparts.

  When we called the big teddy bear makers, such as Gund, Steiff, and Russ Berrie, the designers couldn’t articulate why the expression of most of their bears was sad. Some suggested that they weren’t trying to make their bears frown at all. But go to the Web site of these companies, or visit your local toy store, and we think you’ll agree that compared to most other stuffed animals and toys, the classic bears could use a dose or two of Prozac.

  But not just designers denied the “frown” premise. Kinsey’s response was typical:

  Today’s teddy bears, however, can have big grins, wistful smiles, laughing open mouths, puckers, and every other mouth imaginable. Some still have the straight-line mouths, but I like to think of them as wise, contemplative, trustworthy, or sincere expressions — not frowns.

  Jo Rothery, editor of the English magazine Teddy Bear Times, thinks variety is the spice of teddy bear life:

  Of course there are some bears that are definitely grumpy and have been designed that way by the bear artist. Some collectors do specialize in the grumpy characters, perhaps because they remind them of someone — fathers, husbands, grandfathers, colleagues, etc. And other collectors, particularly of vintage teds, feel that a sad expression adds to the character of the bear and reflects his age and all the experience he has had over the years.

  There are some very “smiley” bears, whose mouths are upturned and instinctively make you want to smile back when you look at them. Again, there are collectors who specialize in such bears, but I think the majority of us like to have a collection that includes lots of different expressions, possibly even some of the openmouthed variety, although it is hard to get that particular expression right. Some bear artists succeed in capturing that “wild” natural look very well without making the bears look at all scary.

  Rothery adds that it is just like when one dog in a litter stirs your heart, even though “they all look alike.”

  Even when you see a lineup of identical teddies, each one will have a slightly different expression, and there is one that will appeal to you more than any of the others and demand that you take him home with you.

  We were shocked when three Gund designers couldn’t articulate why they drew bears’ expressions the way they did, but one creator, Linda McCall, of Key West, Florida, describes it as an almost mystical process:

  Some of my bears’ mouths smile, some frown, and some look really, really grumpy! It just depends on the “feel” I get from the bear. I know it sounds strange to someone who probably has never made a bear. You stitch the darn thing together and you let it sit overnight. Then you look at it again and you just know if it should be a happy bear, a thoughtful bear, or whatever mood it seems to convey. That’s why if you look at all artist-made bears, no two would ever be alike.

  McCall, and several other sources, think the tradition of the “frowning bear” stems from an attempt to mimic how a real bear’s mouth looks. After all, bears in the wild aren’t known for their grins. The “realistic” theory, perhaps the favored one among our sources, contends that most bears aren’t frowning, but merely exhibiting a neutral emotion.

  If you look carefully at the faces of teddy bears, you’ll see that the mouths of many are shaped like an upside-down capital Y. Teddy bear artist Cherri Creamer, of Alive Again Bears, says that the inverted Y is used to align the face so that the nose and eyes conform to the mouth. Whatever reason, the inverted Y provides a downward cast to bears’ mouths. So this “convenient” method of aligning the bear might be responsible for what we interpret as a frown.

  We’re partial to a psychological theory to explain the “frown” of the teddy bear. Jo Rothery comments that the inverted Y

  gives teddy bears a contemplative, relaxed look, an expression that makes them seem only too willing to sit there, “listen,” and absorb their owners’ emotions, whether those emotions happen to be sad or happy.

  If the emotions of a teddy bear are opaque, a child can pour his emotions into his plush toy, and the bear becomes an instant empathizer. Marc Weinberg and Victoria Fraser, creators of Ballsy Bear and Bitchy Bear, agree and comment:

  Teddy bears have been adopted for the most part by children. They’re the child’s only security blanket. You seek him out when you need comfort, when you need a shoulder to cry on. Teddy bears reflect the feelings of their owners.

  If bears reflect the feelings of their owners, then Ballsy Bear’s customers are not a happy bunch. Their two bears, Ballsy and Bitchy, are none too happy campers, and their classic inverted-Y mouths reveal not just a frown but a scowl. Created by a husband-wife team who both were victims of Internet startup failures, Ballsy and Bitchy are not cuddly and are happy to let you know:

  Who needs another teddy bear that says, “I wuv you.” Give your friends, family, and loved ones the gift that says what you really mean: Ballsy Bear and Bitchy Bear — the World’s Nastiest Talking Teddy Bears!

  Submitted by Tim Walsh of Ramsey, New Jersey.

  Why Are the Sprinkles Put on Ice Cream and Doughnuts Also Called Jimmies?

  Do you call Coca-Cola “soda” or “pop”? Do you call those overstuffed sandwiches “hoagies” or “submarines” or “torpedoes” or “grinders”? The answer depends upon where you’re from. Although we’ve received this “sprinkles” versus “jimmies” Imponderable before, we weren’t too excited about researching another question about regional differences in food names until we received this e-mail from reader Netanel Ganin:

  I work at an ice cream store where there is currently a hot debate that has spread to most of my friends. Is the term “jimmies” for those sprinkles that people put on ice cream a racist term? What are its origins?

  We had never considered “jimmy” to have racist connotations, so we decided to do some research. Dictionaries weren’t of any help. The American Heritage Dictionary’s definition was typical: “Small particles of chocolate or flavored candy sprinkled on ice cream as a topping. Etymology: origin unknown.”

  But quickly we could pinpoint the epicenter of jimmydom to the Mid-Atlantic and lower northeast United States. While ice cream parlors in San Francisco or Atlanta offer “sprinkles,” in Boston or Providence, you are likely to be proffered “jimmies.” You can buy jars of the cylindrical candy today, but most manufacturers hedge their bets, describing the product as “sprinkles/jimmies.” Clearly, the terms are used interchangeably, although in some localities, “sprinkles” is used to describe all flavors but chocolate, and “jimmies” for chocolate sprinkles.

  There might be confusion about what to call the darn things, but we can trace their history to one man — Samuel Born. A Russian immigrant, Born settled in San Francisco and within a few years made his first contribution to culinary culture — the Born Sucker Machine, which mechanically inserted sticks into hard candies — lollipops entered the twentieth century.

  In 1917, Born opened a candy store in Brooklyn, New York. He trumpeted the freshness of his confections by using the slogan “just born.” Along the way, Born invented the chocolate coating for ice cream (the kind used to enrobe soft ice cream at Dairy Queen, Carvel, Foster’s Freeze, etc.). But for our purposes, the key invention of Sam Born was the chocolate jimmy.

  Nearly a century later, the grandchild of Sam Born and his cousin are co-presidents of the company, now called Just Born. Janet Ward, of Just Born, proudly proclaims:

  Yes, jimmies were invented at Just Born and we have in our archives some of the advertisements from that time period and containers with the word “jimmies” and the Just Born logo on them. Although there is nothing in writing to confirm it, it is commonly known here that the chocolate sprinkles were named after the Just Born employee who made them.

  According to some sources, that employee was Jimmy Bartholomew, who went to work at Just Born in 1930 and labored at the machine that produced the chocolate pel
lets that have blanketed many an ice cream and doughnut ever since, but the current co-president of the company, Ross Born, can’t positively confirm “Jimmy’s” last name. Back then, most ice cream parlors offered jimmies for free, so they proved most popular with customers who wanted an extra sugar rush without springing for the cost of a sundae.

  Just Born has gone on to sell many well-known products, including Marshmallow Peeps, Mike and Ike, Hot Tamales, and Golden-berg’s Peanut Chews. But sadly, Ross Born told us: “We stopped producing jimmies in the late 1960s; it wasn’t one of our leading items.”

  The jimmies produced by Just Born were always brown, but not necessarily chocolate — perhaps “chocolate-looking” would be more accurate. We’ve noticed that most of the jimmies we’ve tasted have a waxy, gummy consistency and an off-taste that doesn’t resemble chocolate. Ross Born reveals a little-known secret about jimmies — they were probably never made from real chocolate:

  The forerunner of jimmies was a product called “chocolate grains,” which was a chocolate product. As I understand it, jimmies were non-chocolate, at least the formula that I recall and is stated on the container we have in our archives. However, jimmies look like chocolate, and most people would call it that.

  Assuming that jimmies were named after Mr. Bartholomew, we can assume he was of Irish descent. So then why is there a fear that “jimmy” is a slur against African Americans? Some etymologists speculate that “jimmy” is a variant of Jim Crow, the title character in a famous minstrel song performed by black performers (and white performers in blackface) in the 1830s. The song became so popular that anything that pertained to African Americans was dubbed “Jim Crow,” especially in racist contexts. Later, “Jim Crow” came to refer to segregation of blacks from whites, including the infamous Jim Crow Laws, which were enacted in the South to preserve segregation after the Civil War.