When Do Fish Sleep?

by David Feldman

  Most Yankees are so cowed by the image of anyone who can speak French and order fancy wines in restaurants that we not only entrust our best clothing to them but are willing to pay extra for the artistry of the French dry cleaner.

  We conveniently forget, though, that the owner of the French dry cleaning store is as likely to be Japanese as French. And the French dry cleaner is unlikely to tell you that there is absolutely no difference between the way he and the One Hour Martinizing store down the block cleans your clothes.

  Submitted by Mrs. Shirley Keller of Great Neck, New York.

  Why Do Kellogg’s Rice Krispies “Snap! Crackle! and Pop!”?

  Kellogg’s Rice Krispies have snapped, crackled, and popped since 1928. Kellogg’s production and cooking process explains the unique sound effects.

  Milled rice, from which the bran and germ have been removed, is combined with malt flavoring, salt, sugar, vitamins, and minerals and then steamed in a rotating cooker. The rice, now cooked, is left to dry and temper (i.e., sit while the moisture equalizes). The rice is then flattened and flaked as it passes through two cylindrical steel rollers. The Krispies are left to dry and temper for several more hours.

  The cereal then moves to a toasting oven. The flattened rice is now exposed to hot air that puffs each kernel to several times its original size and toasts it to a crisp consistency. This hot air produces tiny air bubbles in each puff, crucial in creating the texture of Rice Krispies and their unique sound in the bowl.

  When milk is added to the prepared cereal, the liquid is unevenly absorbed by the puffs, causing a swelling of the starch structure. According to Kellogg’s, “This swelling places a strain on the remaining crisp portion, breaking down some of the starch structure and producing the famous ‘Snap! Crackle! and Pop!’”

  Submitted by Kevin Madden of Annandale, New Jersey.

  Why Do So Many Cough Medicines Contain Alcohol?

  No, the alcohol isn’t there to make you forget the taste of the cough medicine. Nothing could do that.

  Some drugs don’t mix well with water. Alcohol is the best substitute. Although the alcohol may help some people sleep, the alcohol in the recommended doses of most cough medicines isn’t high enough to affect the average person (one teaspoon has less than 10% the alcohol of a shot of whiskey).

  Why Do Letters Sent First Class Usually Arrive at Their Destination Sooner than Packages Sent by Priority Mail?

  When we send a package through the United States Postal System, we have alternatives. We can send them third class (and for certain goods, fourth class) for considerably less than Priority Mail, the package equivalent of first-class mail. But our experience is that packages invariably take longer to arrive. So we asked the USPS why. Their answers:

  1. Packages are canceled and processed by hand. Almost all letters are canceled and processed by machines. Letters are sorted by OCR (Optical Character Reader) machines capable of processing up to thirty thousand letters in one hour. These machines “read” the last line of the address and sort the envelopes by zip code. Even if the OCRs can’t read a letter, another machine helps humans to do so. The letter is transferred to an LSM (Letter Sorting Machine), which pops up a letter one second at a time before a postal worker who routes the letter to the proper zip code.

  2. Samuel Klein, public affairs officer of the United States Postal Service, says that if a package is larger than a shoe box or weighs more than two pounds, it must be delivered by a parcel-post truck, which also carries nonpriority packages.

  3. Postal workers inadvertently treat Priority Mail as fourth-class mail. Dianne V. Patterson, of the Office of Consumer Affairs of the USPS, warns that “If the Priority Mail or First-Class stamps or stickers are not prominently placed on the parcel, it stands a good chance of being treated as fourth-class mail.”

  It isn’t hard to understand the tremendous logistical difficulties in delivering mail across a large country, or even why mail might be delivered more slowly than we would like. But it is hard to understand exactly how the post office discriminates between processing a first-class and a fourth-class delivery. In the days when airmail was a premium service and fourth-class mail was transported by rail, we understood the distinction. But are postal workers now encouraged to malinger when processing fourth-class mail? Are they taught to let it sit around delivery stations for a few days so as not to encourage customers to use the slower service?

  Despite our grumbling, we’ve found the USPS to be dependable in delivering all the free books we sent out to Imponderables posers. But we’ll share a nasty secret. The books we send out at Special Fourth Class (book rate) seem to arrive no later than the books we send by the costlier Priority Mail.

  Why Isn’t There a Holiday to Commemorate the End of the Civil War?

  Reader Daniel Marcus, who sent in this Imponderable, stated the mystery well:

  We observe a national holiday to commemorate the end of World War I on November 11 [Veteran’s Day], and newspapers always note the anniversaries of V-E and V-J Days regarding the end of World War II. The Revolutionary War is honored, of course, on July 4. Why isn’t there a national holiday to celebrate the end of the Civil War, the second most important and only all-American war in our history?

  Good question, Daniel, but one that assumes a false premise. Memorial Day (also known as Decoration Day), celebrated on the last Monday of May, now honors the dead servicemen and servicewomen of all wars. But originally it honored the Civil War dead.

  In his book Celebrations, historian Robert J. Myers credits Henry C. Welles, a druggist in Waterloo, New York, for originating the idea of decorating the graves of dead Civil War veterans in 1866. Originally the holiday was celebrated on May 5, when townspeople would lay flowers on the servicemen’s graves.

  John A. Logan, commander in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic (a veterans’ support group), declared in 1868 that Decoration Day should be observed throughout the country. New York State was the first to make the day a legal holiday in 1873. Although Memorial Day never officially became a national holiday, it is celebrated in almost every state on the last Monday in May.

  As with most holidays, the average person does not necessarily celebrate the occasion with the solemnity the founders of the holiday envisioned. In his study of the Civil War era, The Expansion of Everyday Life, 1860-1878, historian Daniel E. Sutherland notes that the new Memorial Day conveniently filled the void left by the declining popularity of George Washington’s birthday: “Brass bands, picnic lunches, baseball games, and general merrymaking soon attached themselves to the new holiday, as it became as much a celebration of spring as a commemoration of the nation’s honored dead.” Today, the holiday is more often viewed as a kickoff to summertime than a serious tribute to the war dead.

  Southerners, as might be expected, didn’t particularly cotton to the concept of the northerner’s Memorial Day. They countered with Confederate memorial days to honor their casualties, and many southern states still observe these holidays today. Florida and Georgia’s Confederate Memorial Day is April 26; and Alabama and Mississippi celebrate on the last Monday of April. Not coincidentally, the president of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, was born on June 3. Kentucky and Louisiana celebrate the day as a state holiday.

  Submitted by Daniel Marcus of Watertown, Massachusetts.

  Is It True that Permanents Don’t Work Effectively on Pregnant Women?

  No, it isn’t true, despite the fact that our correspondent has been told that it is true by her hairdressers. And you are not alone; we have been asked this Imponderable many times.

  Everett G. McDonough, Ph.D., senior vice president of Zotos International, Inc., is one of the pioneers of permanent waving (he has worked at Zotos since 1927), and he is emphatic. He has seen or read the results of fifty thousand to one-hundred thousand perms given in the Zotos laboratory over the past sixty years. He has never seen the slightest evidence that pregnancy has any effect on permanent waving. And for good reason:

&nbs
p; a hair fibre after it emerges from the skin has no biological activity. Whether it remains attached to the scalp or is cut off, its chemical composition will remain the same. In either case the chemical composition can be altered only by some external means.

  Louise Cotter, consultant to the National Cosmetology Association, reiterated McDonough’s position and explained how a permanent wave actually works.

  A hair is held together by a protein helix consisting of salt, hydrogen, and disulphide bonds. The words “permanent wave” refer to the chemical change that takes place when those bonds are broken by a reducing agent having a pH of 9.2. The hair, when sufficiently softened, is re-bonded (neutralized) with a solution having a pH of 7.0-7.9. This causes the hair to take the shape of the circular rod on which it is wound, creating full circle curls or a wave pattern, depending upon the size and shape of the rod.

  Although Cotter says that poor blood circulation, emotional disturbances, malfunctioning endocrine glands, and certain drugs may adversely affect the health of hair, none of these factors should alter the effectiveness of a perm on a pregnant woman. Pregnancy isn’t an illness, and none of these four factors is more likely in pregnant women. Even if a pregnant woman takes hor mones that could conceivably affect the results of a perm, a cosmetologist can easily compensate for the problem.

  John Jay, president of Intercoiffure, answers this Imponderable simply:

  I have never had a permanent-wave failure due to pregnancy. Should failure occur for whatever reason, pregnancy may be the most convenient excuse available to some hairdressers.

  Submitted by Jeri Bitney of Shell Lake, Wisconsin.

  Why Do Some Escalator Rails Run at a Different Speed from the Steps Alongside Them?

  The drive wheel that powers the steps in an escalator is attached to a wheel that runs the handrails. Because the steps and the rails run in a continuous loop, the descending halves of the stairs and handrails act as a counterweight to their respective ascending halves. The handrails, then, are totally friction-driven rather than motor-driven.

  If the escalator is properly maintained, the handrail should move at the same speed as the steps. The handrails are meant to provide a stabilizing force for the passenger and are thus designed to move synchronously for safety reasons. Handrails that move slower than the accompanying steps are actually dangerous, for they give a passenger the impression that his feet are being swept in front of him. Richard Heistchel, of Schinder Elevator Company, informed Imponderables that handrails were once set to move slightly faster than the steps, because it was believed that passengers forced to lean forward were less likely to fall down.

  Submitted by John Garry, WTAE Radio, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Thanks also to Jon Blees of Sacramento, California; Robert A. Ciero, Sr. of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania; and David Fuller of East Hartford, Connecticut.

  Why Are There Lights Underneath the Bottom Steps of Escalators and Why Are They Green?

  Those emerald lights are there to outline the periphery of the step on which you are about to hop or hop off. The majority of accidents on escalators occur when a passenger missteps upon entering or exiting the escalator. The lights, which are located just below the first step of ascending stairs (and the last step of descending stairs), are there to show the way for the unproficient escalator passenger.

  Escalator lights are green for the same reason that traffic lights use green: Green is among the most visually arresting colors.

  Submitted by John T. Hunt of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

  Why Are Rented Bowling Shoes So Ugly?

  We know that taste in art is a subjective matter. We are aware that whole books have been written about what colors best reflect our personalities and which colors go best with particular skin tones.

  But on some things a civilized society must agree. And rented bowling shoes are ugly. Does anybody actually believe that maroon-blue-and-tan shoes best complement the light wood grain of bowling lanes or the black rubber of bowling balls?

  Bruce Pluckhahn, curator of the National Bowling Hall of Fame and Museum, told us that at one time “the black shoe—like the black ball—was all that any self-respecting bowler would be caught dead using.” Now, most rented bowling shoes are tricolored. The poor kegler is more likely to be dressed like Cindy Lauper (on a bad day) than Don Carter.

  We spoke to several shoe manufacturers who all agreed that their three-tone shoes were not meant to be aesthetic delights. The weird color combinations are designed to discourage theft. First, the colors are so garish, so ugly, that nobody wants to steal them. And second, if the rare pervert does try to abscond with the shoes, the colors are so blaring and recognizable that there is a good chance to foil the thief.

  Of course, rented bowling shoes get abused daily. A bowling proprietor is lucky if a pair lasts a year. Gordon W. Murrey, president of bowling supply company Murrey International, told Imponderables that the average rental shoe costs a bowling center proprietor about $10 to $25 a pair. The best shoes may get rented five hundred times before falling apart, at a very profitable $1 per rental.

  Even if rentals were a dignified shade of brown, instead of black, tan, and red, they would get scuffed and bruised just the same. Bowlers don’t expect fine Corinthian leather. But can’t the rented bowling shoes look a littler classier, guys? Isn’t a huge 9 on the back of the heel enough to discourage most folks from stealing a shoe?

  Submitted by Shane Coswith of Reno, Nevada.

  What’s the Difference Between Virgin Olive Oil and Extra Virgin Olive Oil?

  We promised ourselves that we wouldn’t make any jokes about virgins being hard to find and extra-virgins being impossible to find, so we won’t. We will keep a totally straight face while answering this important culinary Imponderable.

  We may have trouble negotiating arms reductions, but on one issue the nations of the world agree; thus, the International Olive and Olive Oil Agreement of 1986. This agreement defines the terms “virgin olive oil” and “extra virgin olive oil.”

  Any olive oil that wants to call itself virgin must be obtained from the fruit of the olive tree solely by mechanical or other physical means rather than by a heating process. The oil cannot be refined or diluted, but may be washed, decanted, and filtered.

  The lowest grade of virgin olive oil is semi-fine virgin olive oil, which is sold in stores as “virgin.” This oil must be judged to have a good flavor and no more than three grams of free oleic acid per hundred grams of oil.

  The next highest grade, fine virgin olive oil, cannot exceed one and a half grams of oleic acid per hundred grams and must have excellent taste.

  Extra virgin olive oil must have “absolutely perfect flavour” and maximum acidity of one gram per hundred grams. According to José Luis Perez Sanchez, commercial counselor of the Embassy of Spain, extra virgin olives are often used with different kinds of natural flavors and are quite expensive, which any trip to the local gourmet emporium will affirm.

  As with many other food items, the prize commodity (extra virgin olive oil) is the one that achieves quality by omission. By being free of extraneous flavors or high acidity, the “special” olive oil is the one that manages what wouldn’t seem like too difficult a task: to taste like olives.

  Submitted by Phyllis M. Dunlap of St. George, Utah.

  Why Are There Cracks on Sidewalks at Regular Intervals? What Causes the Irregular Cracking on Sidewalks?

  Believe it or not, those regularly spaced cracks are there to prevent the formation of irregular cracks.

  We tend to see concrete as lifeless and inert, but it is not. Concrete is highly sensitive to changes in temperature. When a sidewalk is exposed to a cool temperature, it wants to contract.

  Gerald F. Voigt, director of Engineering-Education and Research at the American Concrete Pavement Association, explains that concrete is very strong in compression but only one tenth as strong in tension.

  It would be much easier to break a piece of concrete by pulling on two opposite ends, ra
ther than push it together. Cracking in concrete is almost always caused by some form of tensile development.

  In many cases the concrete slabs are restricted by the friction of the base on which they were constructed. This frictional resistance will put the slabs in tension as they contract; if the resistance is greater than the tensile strength of the concrete, a crack will form. Something has to give.

  Without any form of restraint, the concrete will not crack.

  Concrete tends to shrink as it dries, and tends to gain strength over time. Thus, sidewalks are most vulnerable to cracking the first night after the concrete is placed. Two strategies are employed to combat cracking.

  Arthur J. Mullkoff, staff engineer at the American Concrete Institute, told Imponderables that properly positioned reinforcing steel is often used to reduce cracks. But the most effective method of minimizing cracks is to predetermine where the cracks will be located by installing joints in between segments of concrete.