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Posted June 16, 2009
A ‘strigil’ was a tool used by the ancient Romans in their baths. They bathed in stages, going first for a sauna, where they applied oil to their bodies and then sat in the heat and sweated. They used the strigils to scrape the oil (with accumulated dirt) and sweat from their bodies. Then they moved to different room where they took the “hot plunge” in the heated bath, then moved to a third room for the cold plunge, in an unheated pool.
Stan Brown of Macon, GA
Posted April 02, 2009
The difference between a bruise and a contusion is that a contusion is a medical term; a bruise is a lay term. A contusion is a blow to the soft tissues and may result in an echymosis (the medical term for a bruise) which is blood under the skin resulting from breakage of blood vessels. There may or may not be breakage of the skin on either of these. I believe you might have had the definition of an abrasion that you were reading on the show; I’m not sure.
Gertrude E. Nixon, M.D. of Eufaula, AL
Posted February 22, 2009
Who says snipes don’t exist? They are an Eastern marsh and shorebird, as people who live along the Eastern shore could tell you. We sent the tenderfoot out in search of a bird that would never be found in the forest, not a mythical one. Snipes, perhaps another species, is also found in Great Britain, where scouting began, so it may have its origin over there.
NOTE: We received hundreds of letters on this- to our great surprise since Richard features himself quite the closet ornithologist. He did misspeak, but then again, this is a guy who was sent looking for a few feet of shore line, a left-handed Monkey Wrench, a sky hook and a smoke bender. Our thanks to James Hay of Santee, CA for those memories- and to all the others who wrote.
Donald Kaspersen of Concord, NC
Posted December 19, 2008
In the round of familial phrases there was a discussion of the “Grandfather Clause.” The possible origin of the idea and the phrase, though I could not swear to that—comes from the post-Reconstruction South. States seeking to disfranchise black citizens created all sorts of new voting requirements. There were literacy tests and poll taxes and, sometimes, a grandfather clause stating that to be eligible to vote you had to be able to show evidence that your grandfather had voted in an election prior to a given date carefully chosen to predate the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment. Those setting these new rules knew quite well that they were unconstitutional but the federal government declined to intervene at the time.
Zoe Sherman of Brighton, MA
Posted November 02, 2008
Richard: Let me be the 5,372nd person to let you know that Election Day does not (necessarily) fall on the first Tuesday in November, but, rather, on the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November. Americans vote on the Tuesday following the first Monday in November. The reason is that the United States began as a largely agricultural nation, so November was a good time for elections because farmers would have already harvested their crops. With little work left to do for the year, the farmers were able to travel the long distance from their homes to polling places without interfering with their farming. Though some people have suggested changing election day to Saturday or making elections take place over several days, the traditional election day is still observed.”
Wes Robertson of Marshfield, VT
Posted October 22, 2008
As I heard it, the correct translation of Marie Antoinette’s statement, “Let them eat cake” should correctly be, “Let them eat poorcake.”
French ovens were heated with wood or other materials that generated soot that coated the walls of the oven. To keep the bread dough from becoming covered with this soot, the walls of the oven were coated with a mixture of flour and water. When this mixture had dried to the walls of the oven, the bread dough was placed in the oven and baked.
After the oven had cooled down, the sooty, flour mixture--like sooty matzo--was chipped off the walls, placed in a basket, and put on the outside steps for the poor to take and eat. Thus, the lady in question was simply giving practical, if somewhat flippant, advice to her poor subjects: If one cannot afford the bourgeois bread, he can avail himself of the poor man’s “cake.”
Carl F. Weggel of Boston, MA
Posted September 14, 2008
Last week’s show had a question: Who was Dan Rice? The “correct” answer was that he was the inspiration for Uncle Sam. Wrong, wrong, wrong! Uncle Sam was originally based on the visage of Sam Wilson, a meatpacker who stamped U.S. on packages of meat that were produced during the War of 1812. Dan Rice wasn’t born until 1823. Sam Wilson was a relative of mine and this story has always been passed down through the generations. Although it is not 100% certain, there is more evidence that Sam Wilson was Uncle Sam than that Dan Rice was.
Gwendolyn Wilson of Sandy, UT
Posted September 07, 2008
Mel Blanc wasnt allergic to carrots. This was a rumor started because the studio hands would see him munching on a carrot while doing a cartoon and spitting it out. He spit it out because he couldnt talk with it in his mouth! He tried all sorts of other things to make the crunching sound but couldnt find anything to make the right sound. Mr. Blanc, in his autobiography vehemently denied being allergic to carrots.
Lou Farkas of Clarksville, TN
Posted September 02, 2008
THERE IS NO QUESTION! GET IT RIGHT!!!! My father, Harold Sonnichsen, invented Elmer’s Glue while working at Dupont in Niagara Falls during WWII. We have a copy of his patent. His specialty was adhesives and most modern ones are still based on his formulas. He MEANT to invent a glue. He also gets credit for rayon strapping tape and worked on duct tape for the army.
Susan E, Brown of North Haverhill, NH
Posted August 11, 2008
IN RESPONSE TO OUR CHALLENGE FOR TYPISTS EVERYWHERE:
Kevin Bryan writes: I’ve found “dismantlement” (or for a tie, but maybe not in some dictionaries “antiendowment”, “antisudorific”, “autotoxicosis”, and “neurotoxicity")- the longest words you can type with alternating hands on a QWERTY keyboard.
Kevin Bryan of Exter, RI
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