David Feldman - How Does Aspirin Find a Headache?: An Imponderables Book

An Imponderables Book

For Michele Gallery

Preface

Why Dont We Ever See Cockroaches in Our Usually Crumb-Filled Cars?

Why Does Barbie Have Realistic Nylon Hair While Ken Is Stuck with Plastic Hair or Painted Hair?

On the U.S. Penny, Why Is the o in the UNITED STATES oF AMERICA on the Reverse Side in Lower Case?

What Do All the Chime Signals on Airlines Mean? Are They Uniform from Airline to Airline?

Are Lions Really Afraid of Kitchen Chairs?

Why Is Pistachio Ice Cream Colored Green?

Why Are Graves Six Feet Deep and Who Determined They Should Be That Deep?

Why Doesnt Ham Change Color When Cooked, Like Other Meats?

Why Does Warm Milk Serve as an Effective Sleep-Inducer for Many People?

Why Doesnt Glue Get Stuck in the Bottle?

Why Dont People in Old Photographs Ever Seem to Smile?

Why Did Men Thrust Their Right Hand into Their Jackets in Old Photographs?

Why Are Carpenters Pencils Square?

Why Dont Windshield Wipers in Buses Work in Tandem Like Auto Wipers?

Why Were Athos, Porthos, and Aramis Called the Three Musketeers When They Fought with Swords Rather Than Muskets?

Why Dont Public Schools Teach First Aid and CPR Techniques?

Why Do Peanuts in the Shell Usually Grow in Pairs?

Why Are Children Taught How to Print Before They Learn Cursive Handwriting?

Why Do Most Womens Hairbrushes Have Long Handles When Mens Hairbrushes Have Short Handles or No Handles at All?

Why Do Some Ladybugs Have Spots and Others Have None?

Why Does a Loud Bang or Opening and Closing the Oven Door Sometimes Make Souffls and Cakes Fall in the Oven?

Why Do Angel Food Cakes Have to Be Turned Upside-Down While Cooling?

Why Have Auto Manufacturers Moved the Brights/Dimmer Switch from the Floorboard to the Stalk of the Steering Column?

Why Is an Ineligible College Athlete Called a Redshirt? And Why Do Colleges Redshirt Players?

If You Dig a Hole and Try to Plug the Hole with the Very Dirt Youve Removed, Why Do You Never Have Enough Dirt to Refill the Hole?

Why Was Twenty-one Chosen as the Age of Majority?

Why Dont Disc Jockeys Identify the Titles and Artists of the Songs They Play?

Why Do Pigeons Make a Whistling Sound When They Take Off in Flight?

Whats the Difference Between Skim and Nonfat Milk? And How Do They Skim the Fat from Whole Milk?

Why Does Some Lowfat Milk Contain One Percent Fat and Other Lowfat Milk Contain Two Percent Fat?

Why Do Plastic Gallon Milk Containers Have the Counter-Sunk Dips on Their Sides?

Why Arent Green Cards Green?

When Do Kids Turn into Goats?

Why Do Baked Hams Usually Have a Checkerboard Pattern Along the Top?

What Is the Emblem on the Pittsburgh Steelers Helmets? And Is There Any Particular Reason Why the Pittsburgh Steelers Are the Only NFL Team to Have Their Logo on Only One Side of Their Helmets?

Why Did the Rabbit Die When a Pregnant Woman Took the Rabbit Test?

Why Is It That What Looks to Us Like a Half-Moon Is Called a Quarter-Moon by Astronomers?

Whats the Deal with the Grades of Architectural and Art Pencils? What Do H, HB, F, B, and E Stand For?

How Do Hermit Crabs Relieve Themselves When in the Shell Without Getting Filthy? Or Do They Get Filthy?

Why Does Getting a Hair in Our Mouth Make Us Gag?

Why Does Pasta Create Foam When Boiling?

Why Do Many Elderly People, Especially Those Missing Teeth, Constantly Display a Chewing Motion?

Do Butterflies (and Other Insects) Sneeze or Cough? If So, Do They Do So Loud Enough for Humans to Hear?

What Is the Liquid That Forms on Top of Yogurt? Is It Water or Does It Have Nutrients? Should It Be Drained or Stirred Back into the Yogurt?

Why Do Most Yogurts Come with the Fruit on the Bottom? Why Not on the Top? Or Prestirred?

Why Do You Need to Supply Oxygen to a Tropical Tank When Fish Are Quite Capable of Surviving Without Extra Oxygen in Lakes and Oceans? Why Do You See Oxygen Tanks More in Saltwater Aquariums Than Freshwater?

What Happens to Criminals Firearms Confiscated by Police During Arrests?

Why Is There a Worm on the Bottom of Some Tequila Bottles?

Do Fish Pee?

Why Are Screen Door Handles and Knobs Located Higher than Their Regular Counterparts?

Why Arent Automobiles Designed So That the Headlamps Shut Off Automatically When the Ignition Key Is Removed?

Why Do Many Blind People Wear Dark Glasses?

Why Do Many Fast Food Restaurants and Convenience Stores Have Vertical Rulers Alongside Their Main Entranceways?

What Does 100% Virgin Acrylic Mean?

Do Snakes Sneeze?

Why Do Cookbooks Often Recommend Beating Egg Whites in a Copper Bowl?

How Does Aspirin Find a Headache?

Is Goofy Married? If Not, Where Did Televisions Goofy, Jr., Come From?

Why Is $ the Symbol for the American Dollar?

What Do Paper Manufacturers Do with the Holes Punched Out of Looseleaf Paper? Do They Recycle Them?

Why Do We Bury the Dead with Heads Toward the West Facing East?

Why Do Birds Usually Take Flight Against the Wind?

Why Do Geese Honk Furiously While Migrating? Doesnt Honking Squander Their Energy on Long Flights?

Why Do Scotsmen Wear Kilts? And Why Didnt Men in Surrounding Areas Wear Kilts?

Why Are the Muppets Left-Handed?

Why Do We Have a Delayed Reaction to Sunburn? Why Is Sunburn Often More Evident Twenty-four Hours After Weve Been Out in the Sun?

Why Do Hockey Goalies Sometimes Bang Their Sticks on the Ice While the Puck Is on the Other End of the Rink?

What Is the Substance That Resembles Red Paint Often Found on Circulated U.S. Coins? And Why Do Quarters Receive the Red Treatment More Often Than Other Coins?

Why Are So Many Farm Plots Now Circular Instead of Squarish?

Why Are Virginia, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky Called Commonwealths Instead of States? Whats the Difference Between a Commonwealth and a State?

How Do Engineers Decide Where to Put Curves on Highways?

Why Are There So Many Different Types of Wine Glasses? Would Champagne Really Taste Worse If Drunk Out of a Burgundy Glass?

Why Do Soft Breads Get Hard When They Get Stale While Hard Starches Like Crackers Get Softer When Stale?

Why Do Hardcover Books Have Exposed, Checkered Cloth as Part of Their Bindings (on Top and Bottom)?

Will Super Glue Stick to Teflon?

Why Do Many Womens Fingernails Turn Yellow After Repeated Use of Nail Polish?

Why Are Most Corrugated Boxes from Japan Yellow?

Why Are Covered Bridges Covered?

How Do Waiters and Waitresses Get Their Tip Money When the Gratuity Is Placed on a Credit Card?

Why Do Beacons on Police Cars Flash Blue and Red Lights? Why Are the Blue Lights on the Passengers Side and the Red Lights on the Drivers Side?

Why Is It So Hard to Find Single-Serving Cartons of Skim or Lowfat Milk? Why Is It So Hard to Find Single-Serving Cartons of Whole-Milk Chocolate Milk?

What Happens to the Ink When Newspapers Are Recycled?

Why Do Lizards Sleep with One Eye Open?

If Grapes Are Both Green and Purple, Why Are Grape Jellies Always Purple?

Why Didnt Fire Trucks Have Roofs Until Long After Cars and Trucks Had Roofs?

Why Are There So Few Brazil Nuts in Mixed Nuts Assortments?

Why Do American Doors Have Round Door Knobs, While Many Other Countries Use Handles?