How Does Aspirin Find a Headache?

by David Feldman

  Many people like the idea of stirring the cup and doing their own mixing. Some claim that they like to see just how much fruit is really in the cup! Other people couldn’t be bothered and much prefer to have the premixed product.

  But if you notice, almost everyone stirs even the premixed yogurt to some extent. As the French say, “Chacun à son goût!”

  Kent Sorrells, director of research and development at California dairy giant Altadena, marvels at the variety of preferences of yogurt eaters. Some prefer the prestirred varieties because they tend to have a slightly softer consistency. Others feel cheated if they can’t stir the yogurt themselves. And some yogurtphiles, Sorrell notices, like to keep the fruit on the bottom, dipping in when desired. They alternate spoonfuls of pure yogurt with doses of fruit and yogurt, not unlike those of us who pick apart Oreos like biology students dissecting butterflies or who eat all the cake before devouring the frosting.

  But not everyone eats yogurt straight out of the cup, Sorrell reminds us. Many folks like to eat yogurt out of a bowl. They tip the container upside-down into a bowl, and end up with what looks like a fruit sundae, with the topping where Nature intended it to be—on top.

  Why don’t yogurt makers try putting fruit on the top? The heavy fruit would sink anyway, and unevenly at that.

  Submitted by Darcy Gordon of Los Altos, California.

  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?

  Robert Schmidt, of the North American Native Fishes Association, answers the first part of this Imponderable succinctly:

  You have to provide oxygen to any tank that has more fish (thus higher oxygen demand) than the plants and algae in that atmosphere can supply.

  Most natural bodies of water are replete with oxygen-producing plants—by comparison, the plant life in a home tank is like a sprig of parsley next to a piece of halibut in a restaurant.

  Oceans tend to have a richer and more abundant plant life than freshwater environments, but the absence of sufficient flora is not the only reason why saltwater aquaria require oxygen tanks, as Dr. Robert Rofen, of the Aquatic Research Institute, explains:

  Salt water tanks need more aeration than fresh water aquaria to keep their inhabitants alive because the oxygen level is lower in salt water. With the added salt molecules present, there is less room around the H2O molecules for oxygen O2 molecules to be present. Salt water absorbs less O2 than does fresh water.

  Submitted by Rudy, a caller on the Lee Fowler radio show, West Palm Beach, Florida.

  What Happens to Criminals’ Firearms Confiscated by Police During Arrests?

  Somehow, we doubted that the police give criminals a claim check for their unlicensed Saturday night specials. The image of a hardened convict, just released from a federal penitentiary after ten years of hard time for armed robbery, being issued a new suit, twenty dollars, and his old, trusty semiautomatic didn’t ring true.

  So we conducted a survey of about ten police departments all over the United States to find out how the authorities contend with newfound criminal firearms. We discovered quickly that policies about confiscated guns are up to each jurisdiction and that their strategies vary wildly.

  The first priority of all police departments is to hold firearms in case they will be needed as evidence in a trial. Corporal Joseph McQue, of the Philadelphia Police Department’s Public Affairs Office, told Imponderables that guns are first taken to the ballistics unit, where they are checked for fireability. In order to prosecute someone under the Uniform Firearm Act, the weapon must be fireable. (Toting a nonfireable weapon may also be a lesser offense.)

  Whether or not ballistics checks the weapon, most jurisdictions place guns in a property unit until the case comes to trial. In many areas, if the defendant is found guilty and the gun was taken to the courtroom as evidence, the firearm is taken back to the property unit until a judge rules upon its disposition. In most of the jurisdictions we surveyed, if the defendant is found guilty, the judge releases the gun to the police department.

  And what do the police departments do with the weapons? Just about everything you can imagine:

  1. Most commonly, police departments destroy confiscated weapons, and the preferred method seems to be melting. Firearms gathered by the Chicago, New York City, and Philadelphia police are usually melted and sold for scrap, although McQue added that in Philadelphia the melted metal is used to make manhole covers and sewer inlets. Pawnshop owners everywhere must heave a weary sigh when they ponder over the notion that guns worth five thousand dollars are melted alongside pieces of junk.

  Some localities, such as Denver, prefer to crush guns and sell the flattened firearms for scrap. A few jurisdictions, such as Miami, sometimes merely disassemble firearms and trash them. This procedure is far superior to a method of disposal that Miami has long ago discarded: tossing unwanted guns in the ocean.

  2. Some police departments use the guns that they confiscate. Most firearms confiscated from criminals are of low quality, but better pieces are often given to undercover police officers. In Louisiana, the Code of Criminal Procedure mandates that a court order will be issued to either destroy a weapon or to use it in the department. Police officer Christopher Landry told Imponderables how he obtained his duty gun:

  My duty weapon is now a Glock 17 (9mm), thanks to some juvenile delinquent unknown to me. Now that my department has approved.40 caliber for duty use, I’m going to call the judge again to put my name on the list [to obtain confiscated guns]. This judge has no problem with releasing weapons for duty use, but the full automatics get destroyed.

  3. Some police departments sell confiscated guns, often at auctions, but the practice is becoming less common. According to several police officials we spoke to, selling firearms creates bad publicity; opens up potential liability problems; and perhaps worst of all puts more guns out on the streets.

  An official at the Justice Department who wishes to remain anonymous told us that about ten years ago, when a certain jurisdiction decided to adopt a different model for its entire force, it sold all its guns back to the manufacturer.

  And Officer Angelo Bitses, of the Miami Police Department Public Information Office, told us that on rare occasions, confiscated guns might be sold to another police department.

  4. A few guns are donated to museums or are used for other police training.

  5. John Kearney, a Chicago sculptor, provides perhaps the most uplifting use for confiscated guns. A friend of the artist was killed on his birthday by a neighbor who collected guns. Kearney was also deeply affected by the assassination of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King and joined the growing gun control movement. In the late 1960s, he created an outdoor sculpture, using seventy-five melted handguns, called “Hammer Your Swords into Plowshares.”

  This large piece is now owned by The Committee to End Handgun Abuse in Illinois. Every year, Kearney creates an original sculpture out of a gun used in a capital crime in the Chicago area, and the artwork is given to a politician or other notable who has worked to institute handgun control. Some of the recipients include: John Anderson, Sarah Brady, Pete McCloskey, and Dianne Feinstein.

  Submitted by Christopher Stamler of Woodbridge, Virginia.

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

  Because worms aren’t good swimmers?

  Those worms are a marketing concept designed to demonstrate that you’ve bought the real stuff. In order to research this topic with the rigorousness it deserves, we recently undertook a worm-hunting expedition to our local liquor store but found no tequila bottles with worms. We had heard about the worm-filled tequila bottles for years but had never found one ourselves.

  So we beseeched one of our favorite liquor authorities, W. Ray Hyde, to help us. As usual, he knew the answer immediately.

  We couldn’t find worms in tequila bottles becau
se they are included only in bottles of mescal, as he explains:

  Tequila and mescal are related beverages. Both are distinctive products of Mexico. While mescal is any distillate from the fermented juice of any variety of the plant Agave Tequiliana Weber (also known as maquey), tequila is distilled from the fermented juice of only one variety of this plant and only in one restricted area of Mexico. Therefore, all tequila is [technically] mescal but not all mescal is tequila.

  The worm is placed in bottles of mescal as an assurance that the beverage is genuine since the worm used lives only in the Agave Tequiliana Weber plant.

  The worm is found only in the agave cactus in Oaxaca province. Natives of Oaxaca consider the worm a delicacy and believe that the agave possesses aphrodisiac powers.

  Lynne Strang, of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, adds that the United States Food and Drug Administration approved the practice of allowing the worm in imported bottles of mescal and tequila in the late 1970s. Although actual worms were once the rule, most are now replicas, made of plastic or rubber.

  Submitted by Suzanne Bustamante of Buena Park, California. Thanks also to Teresa Rais of Decatur, Georgia; Dianna Love of Seaside Park, New Jersey; Richard T. Rowe of Sparta, Wisconsin; Dana Patton of Olive Branch, Mississippi; Tim Langridge of Clinton Township, Michigan; Mary J. Davis of El Cajon, California; and Aaron Edelman of Jamesburg, New Jersey.

  Do Fish Pee?

  You don’t see them swimming in your toilet, do you? Yes, of course, fish urinate.

  But not all fish pee in the same way. Freshwater fish must rid themselves of the water that is constantly accumulating in their bodies through osmosis. According to Glenda Kelley, biologist for the International Game Fish Association, the kidneys of freshwater fish must produce copious amounts of dilute urine to prevent their tissues from becoming waterlogged.

  Compared to their freshwater counterparts, marine fish, who lose water through osmosis, produce little urine. For those readers who have asked us if fish drink water, the surprising answer is that saltwater fish do, because they need to replenish the water lost through osmosis, as Kelley explains:

  This loss of water is compensated for largely by drinking large amounts of sea water, but the extra salt presents a problem. They rid themselves of this surplus by actively excreting salts, mainly through their gills.

  Dr Robert R. Rofen, of the Aquatic Research Institute, told Imponderables that fish are able to excrete liquids through their gills and skin as well, “the counterpart to humans’ sweating through their skin.”

  Submitted by Billie Faron of Genoa, Ohio.

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

  The height of door knobs and handles has become so standardized that we can usually find, say, a bathroom door knob in an unfamiliar hotel room, with the room pitch black. That’s why it is so disconcerting to reach for the handle of a screen door and find that we are hitting the screen itself. Why aren’t they the same height as “regular” hardware on doors?

  According to Joe Lesniak, of the Door and Hardware Institute, screen doors are usually adjacent to another conventional (or sliding) door, which has its own fixtures. If the hardware on the screen door were at the same height as that on the conventional door, the fittings would conflict. This is also the reason why the door knobs in connecting hotel rooms are deliberately placed at “mismatching” heights.

  So the height of screen (or storm) door handles is an afterthought. Most manufacturers choose to go higher with their screen-door fittings, but a minority go lower—anything to avoid a direct confrontation with the dreaded door knobs and handles of conventional doors.

  Submitted by Lora B. Odom of Carmel, Indiana.

  Why Aren’t Automobiles Designed So That the Headlamps Shut Off Automatically When the Ignition Key Is Removed?

  We venture to speculate that the three correspondents who submitted this question were motivated by a common experience: leaving the headlamps on inadvertently while running out of a just-parked car. Nothing makes one think more about headlamp design than having to buy a new battery.

  Alas, the most common explanation for why headlamps stay on even when the ignition is shut off is that consumers want to be able to mark their vehicles’ presence at night, particularly in emergency situations. Some drivers may also want to use headlamps, on occasion, as a giant flashlight, to illuminate a dark area in front of them. Still, we don’t understand why these operation couldn’t be performed by turning the auxiliary switch and turning the lights on manually. We came to the conclusion that an obvious reason why headlamps don’t switch off automatically is simply because that’s the way it has always been done.

  Increasingly, automakers are listening to consumers’ concerns on the matter. Richard Van Iderstine, of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, wrote Imponderables that there is no law governing the relationship between ignition and headlamp status but that many manufacturers are experimenting with delayed turn-off options for headlamps,

  allowing people to get out and see their way into their home at night. Others automatically turn the headlamp off…but leave the parking and tail lamps on to conserve the battery.

  Vann H. Wilber, director of the safety and international department of the American Automobile Manufacturers Association, the organization that represents the Big Three Detroit automakers, told us that the current experiments with cutting headlamps automatically when the ignition is turned off are part of a long tradition of rolling out “limited introductions” of convenience features to selected models. If consumers prefer the change, automatic headlamp shutoff will join the illustrious list of now standard features that were once introduced only in limited introductions: automatic transmissions; power steering and brakes; radios; and air conditioning.

  Submitted by Ed Leonardo of Arlington, Virginia. Thanks also to Jim Lyles II of Shreveport, Louisiana; Richard Tiede, Jr. of Mansfield, Georgia; and Christopher Doody of Shortsville, New York.

  Why Do Many Blind People Wear Dark Glasses?

  If David Letterman and Mr. Blackwell can do it, so can the Braille Institute: put out a top ten list, that is. Every year, the Braille Institute issues a list of the ten most unusual questions it receives. We are proud to report that this Imponderable made number nine on the 1993 list (edging out number ten: “Do blind babies smile?”).

  In our previous research on blindness, several authorities emphasized that the majority of legally blind people do have some vision. The Braille Institute’s answer to this question stresses the same point:

  Not everyone who is legally blind is totally blind. More than 75 percent of people who are legally blind have some residual vision. Blindness is the absence of sight, not necessarily the absence of light.

  Alberta Orr, of the American Foundation for the Blind, adds, “Many visually impaired persons are extremely sensitive to bright light and glare and wear sunglasses to reduce the amount of light on the retina.”

  Some blind persons wear dark glasses for cosmetic purposes, because they are self-conscious about the physical appearance of their eyes. Increasingly, blind people are forgoing dark glasses, but we tend to associate dark glasses with blind people because so many of the high-visibility blind celebrities, such as Stevie Wonder, George Shearing, and Ray Charles, usually wear them. Even this is starting to change—the last time we saw José Feliciano perform on television, he was shadeless, despite the glare of the spotlights.

  Submitted by Amy Kelly of Cleburne, Texas. Thanks also to Jim Wright, of New Orleans, Louisiana.

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

  On an episode of “The Simpsons,” Marge was found shoplifting at the local convenience store. Her arrest was made considerably simpler when she passed the vertical measuring scale mounted along the exit doorway. It isn’t often, even in a cartoon, that a suspect can be positively ID’d as an eig
ht-foot woman, with a considerable percentage of that height consisting of bright blue hair.

  Police officers we have spoken to over the years have regaled us with stories about how often witnesses supply them with unreliable descriptions of suspects. In particular, frightened witnesses tend to overestimate the height (and weight) of criminals. The ruler is an attempt to remedy flawed guesstimates.

  We weren’t able to locate any convenience store or fast food chain that installs measuring scales in all of its branches; obviously, scales tend to show up in urban, high-crime areas. Some chains, like Wendy’s, never use scales. But Kim Bartley, director of marketing at White Castle, says that any White Castle store that wants one can install it; employees at those locations are instructed to view criminals leaving and observe their height as the miscreants take flight. Many White Castles, like convenience stores, are open at all hours, and more vulnerable to late-night stickups than their fast food competitors.