When Do Fish Sleep?

by David Feldman

  Elizabeth Williams, of the University of Wyoming College of Agriculture, notes that she has never seen an allergic reaction in deer, but allows:

  It’s possible some deer might be allergic to it but we just don’t see the reaction because they are covered with hair. Or it may be that only a very few deer are allergic, and they learn to stay away from poison ivy.

  Veterinarian Ben Klein feels that most domestic animals have a built-in immunity to contact allergy dermatitis, such as poison ivy. Furthermore, that same hair Dr. Williams mentioned hiding an allergic reaction also shields the skin against potential reactions, according to veterinary dermatologist Peter Ihrke.

  Why don’t ruminants break out when they eat poison ivy or poison oak? Dr. Don E. Bailey, secretary-treasurer of the American Association of Sheep and Goat Practitioners, explains that even if these animals had a tendency toward allergic reactions, which they don’t, the mucus membrane in their mouths is very thick and heavy.

  The one animal that most often seems to contract allergic reactions to poison ivy is the dog. Dogs love to roll around in the worst imaginable things. Dr. Ihrke notes that most dogs can withstand the exposure to poison ivy but many of their owners cannot. The owners pet the dogs and come down with severe reactions. Similarly, an innocent vet will examine a dog and break out in a rash, the victim of a communicable disease that doesn’t afflict the carrier.

  Submitted by Karole Rathouz of Mehlville, Missouri.

  Why Don’t Queen-Sized Sheets Fit My Queen-Sized Bed?

  Queen-sized beds expanded from 60″ × 75″ to 60″ × 80″ in the early 1960s. You would think that more than twenty-five years would be a sufficient amount of time to manufacture sheets large enough to cover the expanded surface area. And it was.

  The problem is that sheets are designed to cover mattresses and the linen industry has no control over what the mattress manufacturers are doing. And what the bed companies are doing lately is driving sheetmakers nuts. As Richard Welsh, senior vice president of Cannon Mills Company, succinctly summarizes:

  The sheet industry has experienced problems with fitted sheets for all sizes, not only queen size. The problem is primarily due to the fact that mattress manufacturers have been increasing the depth of their mattresses. As one tries to get an edge on the other, they outsize them by half an inch. There are no standard mattress depths.

  When Mr. Welsh first wrote to Imponderables, in December 1986, he complained about how the sheet industry, accustomed to fitting six-and-one-half-to seven-inch-deep mattresses, watched in horror as depth inflation hit. In the early 1980s, Cannon increased the length of their sheets to accommodate mattresses from eight to eight-and-one-half inches deep. But soon, the nine-inch barrier was broken. Cannon responded to this problem in 1987 by manufacturing sheets “guaranteed to fit.” These sheets could cover a mattress nine-and-one-half inches thick.

  But the mattressmakers never stopped. They invented a whole new genre of bed, the “pillow top” mattress, with pockets of polyester fill on top. Pillow tops have increased the crown space (the highest point of padding) on some mattresses to as high as one foot to twelve-and-one-half inches.

  The standard queen-size flat sheet is now 90″ x 102″, which is more than sufficient to cover the 60″ x 80″ queen-size beds if they don’t continue the creep upward. But creep they probably will. On the low end of the market, six-inch-thick mattresses still are available. If you have sheets that are longer than you need, have compassion for the sucker with the pillow top. The same sheet that is too long for you probably isn’t long enough to tuck under his mattress.

  P.S. It was inevitable. Fieldcrest and Wamsutta, among others, are now manufacturing sheets specifically for pillow top mattresses.

  Why Is There Cotton Stuffed in Prescription and Over-the-Counter Medicine Bottles? What Happens If I Take Out the Cotton? Why Aren’t Alka-Seltzer Containers Stuffed with Cotton?

  The main purpose of the cotton stuffed in medicine vials is to prevent rattling and subsequent breakage of pills during shipment. But why cotton? Because of its absorbency, cotton helps keep medications dry. David G. Miller, associate director of the National Association of Retail Druggists, points out that moisture will destroy most drugs.

  Still, all the druggists we spoke to recommended taking out the cotton once the container is opened for use. Melvin T. Wilczynski, of the Lane Drug Company, explains that the absorptive characteristics of cotton, which help keep pills dry during shipment, also are capable of absorbing moisture from the environment. If the cotton gets wet and re-enters the bottle, the effectiveness of the medication is jeopardized.

  Excess heat and light are also capable of breaking down medications. For this reason, it makes no sense to keep pills in the kitchen, where they are exposed to the heat of ovens, or outside the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, where they could be exposed to harsh light or space heaters.

  At one time, Miles Laboratories did put cotton into Alka-Seltzer containers, but found that consumers couldn’t be trusted. If you accidentally get an Alka-Seltzer tablet wet, you get premature fizz—a temporary thrill perhaps, but one that will do you no good when a bout of indigestion sets in.

  Miles provides a styrofoam cushion to protect tablets during shipping, but they recommend throwing away the cushion once the bottle is opened. Although styrofoam is not as absorbent as cotton, it is perfectly capable of generating bubbles when wet.

  Submitted by Andrew Neiman of Dallas, Texas.

  Why Do Bagels Have Holes?

  In Why Do Clocks Run Clockwise? and Other Imponderables, we explained why doughnuts have holes. We were pretty smug about our accomplishment too. Then a letter arrives from Jay Howard Horne asking us why bagels have holes. Will there ever be a stop to this mania for knowledge about hole origins?

  Nobody knows for sure who created the first bagel. Chances are, it was an accident precipitated by a piece of yeast-laden dough falling into hot water. But we do know who first called a bagel a “bagel.” In 1683, the first Viennese coffeehouse was opened by a polish adventurer, who introduced a new bread called the beugel. When Austrians emigrated to the United States in the next two centuries, the beugel was re-christened the bagel.

  So what was a Polish man doing opening a coffeehouse in Vienna and creating a hole-y bread?

  The king of Poland, Jan Sobiesky, had become a hero in Austria in the late seventeenth century by driving off armed invaders from Turkey. In their escape, the Turks left behind sacks of enough coffee to keep every citizen of Vienna up nights for a month, inspiring the opening of many a coffeehouse in Vienna.

  The coffeehouse owner took a popular yeast bread called kipfel and reshaped it into the bagel shape we know and love today. The bread was meant to resemble the stirrups of brave King Sobiesky, who fought on horseback to save Vienna from the Turks. “Bagel” is derived from the German word for stirrup, “bugel.”

  Submitted by Jay Howard Horne of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

  Do the Digits in a Social Security Number Have Any Particular Meaning?

  Now that the Social Security number has become a virtual citizenship identification number, paranoid types have become convinced that each digit is another way for Uncle Sam to poke into our private lives. No, the government can’t tell by looking at our Social Security number whether we are registered Democrats or Republicans, whether we are in the highest income-tax bracket or are on welfare, or even whether we have committed a crime.

  Under the current system, the first three digits of a Social Security number indicate the state of residence of the holder at the time the number was issued. The remaining digits have no special meaning.

  Before 1973, Social Security numbers were assigned by local Social Security offices. The first three digits were assigned based on the location of the Social Security office rather than the residence of the issuee. Opportunists used to scoop up several different Social Security numbers by applying for cards at several different offices, which led to the current practic
e of issuing all numbers from the central Social Security office in Baltimore. According to Dorcas R. Hardy, commissioner of Social Security, the first three digits of a person’s Social Security number are now determined by the ZIP code of the mailing address shown on the application for a Social Security number.

  Although the first three digits of the Social Security number do not correspond exactly to the first three digits of that state’s zip codes, the lowest Social Security numbers, like their ZIP code counterparts, start in New England and then get progressively larger as they spread westward. Numbers 001-003 are assigned to New Hampshire, and the highest numbers assigned to the 50 states are New Mexico’s 585. The Virgin Islands (580), Puerto Rico (580-584, 596-599), Guam (586), American Samoa (586), and the Philippine Islands (586) are also assigned specific three-digit codes.

  Until 1963, railroad employees were issued a special series of numbers starting with the digits 700-728. Although this practice is now discontinued, these numbers remain the highest ever issued. No one has ever cracked the 729 plus barrier.

  Submitted by Douglas Watkins, Jr. of Hayward, California. Thanks also to Jose Elizondo of Pontiac, Michigan; Kenneth Shaw of San Francisco, California; and Rebecca Lash of Ithaca, New York.

  Why Do the Light Bulbs in My Lamps Loosen After I’ve Put Them in Place?

  An unscientific poll conducted by the Imponderables Research Board indicates that creeping bulb loosening is a problem for many, although a majority of respondents never faced the problem. Is some sadist running around loosening the bulbs of selected victims?

  Perhaps, but a natural explanation is more likely. The greatest culprit in loosening light bulbs is vibration. Friction keeps the socket threads of a light bulb tightly fitted into the base threads of a fixture. J. Robert Moody, of General Electric, informed Imponderables that “vibration weakens the friction force, allowing the light bulb to back out of the socket on its own. If the vibration is intense, like on an automobile or an airplane, then a bayonet base must be used in place of the screw-threaded base.”

  Perhaps that incessant bass drone emanating from the heavy-metal freak upstairs caused your problem. The only solution might be the purchase of a bayonet base for your lamp or a bayonet to use on your neighbor.

  Submitted by Darryl Williams of New York, New York.

  How Are Olives Pitted? How Do They Stuff Olives?

  Until recently, the vast majority of olives were stuffed by hand. Olives were held in cups, and a crude machine operated with a foot treadle would punch out the pit while another element cut a hole on top of the olive simultaneously. A worker would then inspect the olive. If it was acceptable, she would take a pimento, onion, anchovy or other filling and manually stick it in the hole.

  Obviously, olive companies were desperately in need of a high-tech solution to the slowness of their production line. Not only was the pitting and stuffing operation labor-intensive, but the machines would rip olives to shreds and leave pit fragments as a “bonus” for unsuspecting consumers. Even more damaging, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration would routinely refuse to allow importation of mangled olives (almost all green olives are imported from Spain).

  Automation revolutionized the olive industry in the early 1970s. Modern machines, typically containing twenty-four separate stations, are capable of stuffing twelve hundred to fifteen hundred olives a minute. The olives are pitted in one movement, and the pimento is inserted with ease.

  The down side to this otherwise lovely story is that automation has encouraged olive distributors to dump natural pimentos in favor of pimentos “enhanced” with paste and binders. These additives enable the pimento to be fashioned into an endless ribbon of red stuff. The machine then cuts the ribbon to exact specifications prior to stuffing the cavity, so that larger olives receive wider strips of pimento-red stuff. Of course, the pimento-red stuff tastes more like red stuff than pimento, but this is the price we pay for progress.

  Machines now exist to sort olives by size, to inject brine into a jar, to pack olives in jars, to stuff olives with pimentos, to slice olives, and to seal olive jars. Until the 1980s almost all olives were packed into jars by hand. Fancy Spanish olives are often placed in geometric patterns to induce impulse purchases by consumers. According to Edward Culleton, of the Green olive Trade Association, American consumers have never developed brand loyalty, so shoppers have traditionally been receptive to eye-catching arrangements of olives. About 90% of green olives are now packed by machine rather than by hand, so “place packs” (hand-packed jars) are likely to be a specialty item in the future. In fact, Spain now exports hand-pitted stuffed olives in beautiful crystal jars as a luxury gift item—and the olives are stuffed with real pimentos.

  Submitted by Helen Tvorik of Mayfield Heights, Ohio.

  Why Is One Side of a Halibut Dark and the Other Side Light?

  With the price of halibut these days, we might assume that we are paying extra for the two-tone job. But nature supplies halibut with two colors for a less mercenary reason.

  The eyeless side of the halibut is light, requiring no camouflage. But the side with eyes is dark. Like other flat fish that swim on one side, the halibut is dark on the side exposed to the light. Robert L. Collette, associate director of the National Fisheries Institute, describes the coloring as “a natural defense system.” The dark side is at top “so that predators looking down upon halibut are less likely to detect their presence.”

  This camouflage system is adapted for fish and mammals that swim upright. They have dark backs and white undersides to elude their predators.

  What Is the Difference Between a “Mountain” and a “Hill”?

  Although we think you are making a mountain out of a molehill, we’ll answer this Imponderable anyway. Most American geographers refer to a hill as a natural elevation that is smaller than 1,000 feet. Anything above 1,000 feet is usually called a mountain. In Great Britain, the traditional boundary line between hill and mountain is 2,000 feet.

  Still, some geographers are not satisfied with this definition. “Hill” conjures up rolling terrain; “mountains” connote abrupt, peaked structures. A mound that rises two feet above the surrounding earth may attain an elevation of 8,000 feet, if it happens to be located in the middle of the Rockies, whereas a 999-foot elevation, starting from a sea-level base, will appear massive. For this reason, most geographers feel that “mountain” may be used for elevations under 1,000 feet if they rise abruptly from the surrounding terrain.

  The Oxford English Dictionary states that “hill” may also refer to non-natural formations, such as sand heaps, mounds, or, indeed, molehills.

  Submitted by Thomas J. Schoeck of Slingerlands, New York. Thanks also to F. S. Sewell of San Jose, California.

  Why Aren’t There License Plates on the Back of Many Big Trucks on the Highway?

  Fewer than two-thirds of the fifty states require license plates on both the front and back of a commercial truck. Why do truckers, unlike automobile owners, only have to display one plate in many states?

  Presumably, tractors will be pulling trailers most of the time, so the only time we are likely to see a tractor with two plates is when it is “deadheading” (not towing a trailer). Then, the back license plate is likely to be obscured by the trailer anyway, and be of little use to police.

  Because many tractors are crossing borders constantly, the licensing of commercial tractors and trailers can be complicated. According to Jan Balkin, of the American Trucking Associations,

  All trailers must have license plates from the state in which it is licensed. That state may not necessarily be the same as the state in which the tractor is licensed; carriers may license the tractor and trailer in different states, depending upon certain financial decisions as to which state (s) the carrier chooses.

  Why Do Mayors Hand Out Keys to Their City?

  We’ve all seen those silly ceremonies on TV where a grinning mayor hands a three-foot-long key to a minor celebrity as flashbulbs pop. But we have a
lways wondered: Why does the recipient need a key to the city? He’s already in the city.

  Actually, this ceremony has legitimate historical antecedents. In the Middle Ages, most large cities were walled. Visitors could enter and exit only through gates that were locked at sundown and reopened at dawn.

  Mike Brown, of the United States Conference of Mayors, told Imponderables that gatekeepers used keys to open and close the gates. These keys were closely guarded, for they were crucial in preventing military attacks. If a key was passed to an honored visitor, it indicated total trust in him.

  Today, a mayor no longer threatens the security of her domain by handing out the key to the city, and the honor is more likely a public relations stunt than in gratitude for service or accomplishment. But the meaning is the same. By handing out the key to the city, the mayor says, “Come back any time and you don’t even have to knock. We trust you.”

  What Is the Purpose of the Beard on a Turkey?