Do Fish Drink Water?

by Bill McLain

  There are 20 numbers around the outer edge of the board and each number is at the large side of a “wedge.” The wedge is divided into four parts: two large scoring areas, a doubles area (the outer ring), and the triples area (the inner ring).

  Although no one knows how the numbering sequence originated, it is the same on virtually every board. The 20 is flanked by the two low numbers 5 and 1, 19 is flanked by 3 and 7, 18 by 1 and 4, and 17 by 2 and 3. The four odd numbers (17, 3, 19, and 7) are clustered near the bottom and three pairs of even numbers fall together (18 and 4, 6 and 10, and 16 and 8).

  FACTOIDS

  “Diddle for the middle” is a slang expression used for the start of a game when opposing players each throw a single dart at the bull’s-eye. The person who is the closest starts the game.

  When throwing darts, each player stands 7 feet 9.25 inches from the board which is hung 5 feet 8 inches above the floor.

  If someone calls you a “chucker” it’s an insult. The name refers to someone who doesn’t care and just “chucks” the darts at the board without aiming.

  Although darts have been around for centuries and became popular in English taverns and inns during the nineteenth century, it was not until about 1970 that the sport became so popular that major competitions were televised.

  DID YOU KNOW?

  People traditionally equate the game of darts with England. However, the game has become so popular in the United States that there are over three times as many dart players here as there are in England. Annual prizes for major tournaments held in the United States can exceed a million dollars a year. The major world championships are the Winmau World Masters, the World Darts Federation (WDF) World Cup, the Embassy World Professional Darts Championship, and the News of the World Championships.

  Perhaps it’s due to our love affair with high technology that in the 1980s coin-operated electronic dart machines appeared. These are extremely popular in the United States. With the electronic dart games, new dart rules had to be created. Some of these are rather interesting:

  If a dart sticks in the board but the machine fails to score it, you lose those points.

  If the dart bounces off the board, it does not score and cannot be thrown again.

  However, the basic rule of electronic darts is rather frightening for those who do not like high technology:

  The machine is always right, no exceptions.

  In football, why is it called a “down” instead of a chance, or try, or attempt? (Another way of saying, “I give up”?)

  In football the term “down” has been used since the late nineteenth century when the game was more rowdy than it is today. If the runner fell to one knee he could get up and run again. When a ball carrier was tackled, he would yell “Down” to let his opponents know that he couldn’t go any farther. This kept players on the other team from piling on the downed ball carrier.

  Today’s game hardly resembles early football. From colonial times until the late 1800s, football did not involve the foot at all. The ball was dribbled or was carried by a runner. By 1820, players were allowed to bat the ball with their fists and the game became known as ballown.

  A typical team consisted of 2 backs, 16 runners, and 2 rovers, but playing the game was hardly orderly. There were no set rules and the few rules that did exist were often arbitrarily changed from game to game. Many colleges made up their own rules, some of which promoted violence. No college had any firmly established rules and the number of players allowed on each side was usually agreed upon just before the game.

  In the 1850s a round rubber ball was introduced. Players began developing the skills necessary to kick the ball long distances as well as the soccer style of dribbling the ball with the foot or using the foot to pass the ball to a teammate.

  In 1875, when Harvard University had a match with Yale University, the rules were a combination of rugby rules and rules from the existing American game of ballown. Within five years an association was formed to standardize football rules among the colleges.

  Football became a popular but often deadly sport. In 1909, for example, 33 college athletes died while playing football and almost 250 suffered major injuries. More rule changes were introduced to promote skill rather than roughness as the way to win a game.

  The game of football has continued to evolve and has become highly refined. It is now the most popular of all college sports.

  FACTOIDS

  It is always difficult to pick the greatest college football games of all time. However, here are two of the ten games that many writers, coaches, and players have voted to be among the greatest.

  Stanford versus California, 1982. John Elway had moved Stanford into field goal range and when Mark Harmon booted the ball through the uprights, Stanford took a 20-19 lead with only four seconds left to play. When Stanford kicked off for the final play of the game, California’s Kevin Moen ran down the field and then lateraled the ball to his linebacker Richard Rogers. As Rogers was being tackled, he flipped the ball to Dwight Garner, who threw it backward to Mariet Ford. Ford raced down the sideline. The Stanford band, not realizing the game was not over, streamed onto the field in a victory celebration and hemmed Ford in. Ford flipped the ball over his head and it was caught by Kevin Moen who charged into the end zone, making one of the most bizarre touchdowns in college play. California won the game 25-21.

  Miami versus Boston College, 1984. Although played in a driving rain and on a muddy field, this game saw the Miami quarterback, Bernie Kosar, pass for almost 450 yards and the Boston College quarterback, Doug Flutie, pass for over 470 yards. In the fourth quarter, the lead changed three times. Miami was leading 45-41 when Boston College made the last play of the game. On their own 48-yard line, Boston College’s Flutie threw a desperation pass as time ran out. Gerard Phelan had beaten the Miami defenders, caught the pass, and fell backward into the end zone. Boston College had won. The pass that won the game went down in history as one of the most famous “Hail Mary” passes.

  DID YOU KNOW?

  Football enthusiasts each have their own idea as to who contributed the most to modern college football. Knute Rockne, who made the forward pass popular, trained the “Gipper” and the “Four Horsemen,” and invented the “platoon system” of substituting complete teams, is always high on the list.

  There are too many others to mention them all here, but there is one who is rarely mentioned, Walter Chauncey Camp, who died in 1925.

  It was Camp who helped change the game from a combination of rugby and ballown to what it is today. Some of his innovations included the 11-man team, the quarterback position, the scrimmage line, and signal calling. One of his greatest innovations was the rule that requires a team to surrender the ball if it does not advance a specified number of yards from the scrimmage line.

  We remember some names, we’ve never heard of others. Yet we should thank all of the innovators who have made college football the popular and exciting sport that it is today.

  How did the sport of hockey get started? (Zamboni is not a hockey player.)

  Historians believe that ice hockey is derived from a game played by the Micmac Native Americans and was later adopted by settlers in Canada. However, the settlers introduced some facets of field hockey into the Micmac game, which eventually evolved into a game called “shinty.” This game was played on ice, but players used their sticks to hit a ball instead of a puck. The puck was first used in 1860. The exciting sport of ice hockey has been described as being a game of “blood, sweat, and beauty.”

  The National Hockey League (NHL) was created in 1917 and consisted of both Canadian and American professional teams.

  Over the years, hockey has produced legendary superstars. One of the most famous was Bobby Hull, who was an all-star 12 times. He was a fast skater, clocked at skating almost 30 mph, and had a devastating slapshot clocked at 118 mph. During one season he played with his mouth wired shut because of a broken jaw but still scored 58 goals.

  You can argue
about who is the best hockey player of all time, but almost everyone agrees that the greatest defenseman of all time was Bobby Orr. A goalie on an opposing team once said, “The first thing I did when I saw Bobby Orr bearing down on me was to pray, if I had time!”

  In the 1970-1971 season Orr scored an amazing 139 points, including 102 assists. It was the first time any player had scored 100 assists in a single season and only two players have done it since, Gretzky and Lemieux. Orr’s record is even more astonishing because he was a defenseman. In 1998 the Hockey News named Wayne Gretzky the greatest player of all time. Bobby Orr was second.

  The great Gordie Howe had his record of all-time leading scorer broken by the great Wayne Gretzky. Howe’s record had been 1,851 points during his playing lifetime. Wayne Gretzky recently took retirement.

  FACTOIDS

  When Bobby Hull left the Blackhawks in 1972 to join the World Hockey Association (WHA), the drop in attendance over the next ten years is estimated to have cost the Blackhawks over $1 billion in lost revenues.

  The Scandinavian game of “bandy” (or “banty”) is similar to hockey but uses a ball rather than a puck, making it a much faster game.

  When tenor Luciano Pavarotti performed in the San Jose, California, arena (home of the Sharks hockey team), he sang on a stage that sat on 10,000 gallons of frozen water.

  DID YOU KNOW?

  A key element in the sport of ice hockey is the ice itself. It’s only been in recent years that scientists have made major discoveries to help us understand the properties of ice.

  Hockey players talk about “fast ice” and “slow ice.” When the ice is “fast” it means that it is harder, colder, and smoother. “Soft” ice is warm, soft, and rough. Scientists have recently found that ice has a semifluid layer that coats the surface and makes it slippery. When the ice is minus 250 degrees Fahrenheit, this layer is only the thickness of a molecule. As ice temperature rises, the number of these slippery layers increases.

  The ice in a hockey arena is made by pumping freezing salt water through a system of pipes embedded in a large piece of concrete. When the concrete is cold enough, water is poured onto its surface. After a few layers of ice have been laid down, the hockey markings and advertisements are painted on and another eight to ten layers of ice added on top. When finished, the ice is only an inch thick.

  A hockey fan doesn’t care that much about how ice is made or its consistency. Whether the ice is “slow” or “fast,” hockey is a fast, rough, exciting sport to watch.

  More questions? Try these websites.

  PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL

  http://www.nfl.com/

  This is the official site of the National Football League and includes news, standings, statistics, links to all of the teams’ websites, and more.

  COLLEGE FOOTBALL

  http://espnet.sportszone.com/ncf/index.html

  This site features daily news about college football, standings for all conferences, statistics, injuries, and much more.

  PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL

  http://www.majorleaguebaseball.com/

  This official site of major-league baseball includes sections on players, current scores, scheduled games, best records in baseball history, and much more.

  YEAR 2000 OLYMPIC GAMES

  http://www.oca.nsw.gov.au

  This is the official site of the year 2000 Olympic games to be held in Sydney, Australia.

  Transportation and Travel

  How does a traffic signal know that a car is waiting fora green light? (No, driving back and forth won’t fool the detector.)

  Traffic lights are controlled in many different ways. The simplest method uses an internal timer that specifies how long a light should stay a particular color.

  Other lights are controlled by a “low-tech” controller that can be programmed for a specific sequence to handle normal traffic patterns. During peak traffic times, the light stays green longer on the main streets. However, during times of light traffic, the lights are controlled by detectors—a few loops of wire embedded in the center of each lane near the intersection. An electric current is sent through the wire loop creating a magnetic field.

  When an automobile passes over the wire, the metal absorbs some of the energy causing a signal to be transmitted to the controller. This lets the controller know that there is an automobile in the lane and that it should change the light to green. This method of traffic control has been used for decades.

  FACTOIDS

  The traffic signal was invented by Garrett A. Morgan in the 1920s. The early signals did not have lights and displayed either a red STOP sign or a green GO sign. A simple electric clock controlled the movement of the signs.

  Traffic speed limits vary greatly from country to country. In a Dutch “shared street” the speed limit is a walking pace, while there is no speed limit at all on the German autobahn, although it is recommended not to drive faster than 80 mph.

  Strict Orthodox Jews are not allowed to do any work on the Sabbath, including using mechanical devices such as a “Walk” button. To prevent the devout from being stuck at a traffic signal forever after leaving the synagogue, Los Angeles traffic engineers have programmed nearby traffic signals to provide automatic walk times during the Sabbath.

  The city of Los Angeles has three times more automobiles than people.

  In 1928, Charlie Adler invented a device that could respond to the sound of an automobile horn. It was placed on a utility pole along with a sign saying SOUND HORN TO CLEAR SIGNAL. When a driver honked, the light turned green. Not popular with local residents, the invention was short-lived.

  DID YOU KNOW?

  Today traffic engineers must consider more than automobiles. They also need to consider bicycles, fire engines, horses, buses, commuter trains, blind people, and people in wheelchairs.

  One new innovation is a microwave radar unit that detects pedestrians in a crosswalk and makes sure they have time to cross the street before the light changes. Another is a high-tech video imaging system with four cameras per intersection. Whenever a vehicle enters the camera’s field of vision, it trips a sensing device.

  Another fascinating device being tested in Los Angeles is designed to prevent collisions between horses and bicycles, which have occurred in the past. A microwave “horse detector” has been installed at the intersection of an equestrian path and a bicycle path to warn bicyclists when a horse approaches.

  The City of Los Angeles has always been in the forefront of traffic control technology. The city is now experimenting with a “thinking computer” that analyzes traffic patterns when a baseball game is over. Baseball games end at different times, so a timing device will not work. Engineers use the computer to define typical traffic patterns that occur after a game. Then, for subsequent games, the computer sets traffic lights to this “after-game” pattern to give preference to traffic moving away from the stadium.

  The next time you get stuck at a red light for what seems to be an eternity, remember that many hard-working engineers are constantly seeking ways to give you a green light as quickly as possible.

  Why do they drive on the left side of the road in England? (It depends on which hand you use to hold your sword.)

  During the Middle Ages people traveled on the left side of the road for protection. If a stranger was coming from the opposite direction or was passing you, it was important to keep your sword handy in your right hand in case the stranger turned out to be an enemy. In A.D. 1300 Pope Boniface VIII mandated that all pilgrims going to Rome had to travel on the left side of the road.

  Over 400 years later farmers hauling their products to town in large wagons usually rode on the horses rather than in the wagon. The farmer sat on the horse that was on the left and at the back of the team, thereby keeping his right arm free to whip the team if needed. Sitting on the left also made it easier to look down and make sure the wagon wheels didn’t hit those of other passing wagons. In this way people started driving on the right side of the road. During
the French Revolution Napoleon enforced a keep-right rule in France and in all countries he occupied.

  The English, however, didn’t drive huge wagons and the driver sat on the right side of the wagon seat, so that when he whipped the horses the whip wouldn’t get hung up on the load behind him. Because of this, the English continued to drive on the left side of the road and this practice has continued to this day.

  There is an old saying that if everything is coming your way, you’re either in the wrong lane or you’re in England.

  FACTOIDS

  President Theodore Roosevelt once said that he had ridden in an automobile only twice in his life and that was enough. Yet he became the first president to own an automobile and the first to drive one.

  A month before Clyde Barrow of Bonnie and Clyde fame was killed in a shootout with police, he wrote a letter to Henry Ford telling him what a “dandy” automobile he had made.

  Starting with Calvin Coolidge in 1924, the Lincoln became the official automobile for the president of the U.S. The tradition was broken by Ronald Reagan, who preferred a Cadillac.

  In 1906 a Stanley Steamer reached the unbelievable speed of 127 mph at Ormond Beach, Florida.

  Instead of a steering wheel, early U.S. automobiles had a stick similar to a joystick in an airplane. It was mounted in the middle of the automobile in front of the front seat, forcing the driver to also sit in the middle. When steering wheels came into use, some were on the left and some were on the right. It was not until after 1913 that the left-hand steering wheel became standard.