| 04/20/01 We begin with a quesiton from Steve: "How does aspirin find where to block pain?" It doesn't. Let's first look at a simplified version of pain. We have nerve receptors all over our bodies, that's how I can feel the keyboard while I type, or how I can feel a calculus book when I drop it on my foot. These receptors send "pain" up to your brain. It's important to remember that the pain is all felt in the brain. Now, these receptors alone don't cause the pain, the main culprits are chemicals known as prostaglandins which the damaged tissues make using the enzyme cyclooxygenase2 (COX-2). Prostiglandins, manufactured by the damaged tissue, amplify the pain signal sent to the brain, so that your brain will feel the pain, and you will stop hitting your thumb with a hammer. Prostaglandins are also responsible for the swelling of the damaged tissue that often accompanies pain. Aspirin (or the Acetylsalicyc Acid in the aspirin) stops cells from making prostaglandins; it does this by inhibiting the COX-2 enzyme (sticking to it so that it won't fit where it needs to fit). By stopping the production of prostaglandins, aspirin stops the pain. Of course, aspirin doesn't know where the pain is, and doesn't specifically go to one area. It travels through your entire body and stops prostaglandins from being manufactured anywhere, but since they are almost exclusively manufactured by damaged tissue as pain apmlifiers (the exception being the stomach, where prostaglandins actually help us out by keeping the stomach lining nice and thick, so don't take too many aspirins if you don't need to), it stops the pain (it stops you from feeling the pain, it doesn't fix the problem that's causing the pain). It's like walking into a smelly room and spraying odor neutrilizer or air freshener all over the place, the air freshener doesn't know where the stench is coming form, but it still stops you from having to smell it. The way aspirin works was discovered, long after people began using it, in the early 1970s by Dr. John Vane (who has since become Sir Dr. John Vane), Dr. Vane won the 1982 Nobel Prize in medicine for his work. So, to answer your question, it doesn't know where the pain is, but it only works where there is pain. Hope that answered your question. |
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| Our next question comes from Wally. "...I was just wondering if you knew how much neutrinos weighed. If you don't know the answer to that one, then what's the fruit that Michael Corleone drops at the end of Godfather Part 3. Thanks." Luckily for me, I do know something about how much a neutrino weighs, so I get to dodge the much harder second question. Here's the answer: The weight of a neutrino is it's mass multiplied by the gravitational forces acting on it. Here on earth, it would be it's mass multiplied by our gravitational constant (~9.8m/s). There you go Wally, enjoy. .......Okay, seriously though, an exact mass for the neutrino is not known, but we do know that it's a non-zero value. A neutrino is basicly a particle like the electron we know and love, except without electric charge. They're not effected by strong electromagnetic forces, only weak, sub-atomic, short-range forces, and can therefore pass through matter without being affected (if they have mass, which we think they do, gravity will also affect them, but gravity is the weakest of the four forces, or three, depending on how you look at it). In 1998, a Japanese neutrino detector (it doesn't actually detect neutrinos, but neutrino by products)found evidence of neutrino mass. The detector, called Super-Kamiokande, is basicly a giant bath tub lined with various light detection devices and what not. I remember reading more about this detector in a 1998/9 issue of Scientific American, but it delt mainly with neutrinos changing from one type into another (this is called neutrino oscillation), so Wally and anyone else interested can look for that issue. Back to the non-zero mass thing; we suspect they have a non-zero mass becasue of the Oscillations I mentioned earlier; skipping the details, the occurance of oscillations implies that the masses of the neutrinos involved are unequal, if they are unequal, then both cannot be zero. Wally, that's pretty much it for now: don't know exact mass, but they do have mass. I am by no means through with this question yet though. If you recall, in the home page I said that some questions might take long to answer, file this in that category. I might change my major to physics, or wait, not change it to physics, but not change it to something else and keep it at physics, and answer your question later. |
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| And our last question for today comes from Mike. "whats up with girls man seriously whats up with girls" Well Mike, to answer your question, I decided to find a sample population of girls, ask them what was up with them, crunch some numbers, and see what came up. Here are the results: 75% of the girls surveyed, whe asked "What's up with you" answered "Nothing much, what's up with you?" 25% said "I hear the call and I will answer it", but they were under the influence of 80s rock music. This ends the first day of operations for The Migran McMigran's Shack of Knowledge. You can ask question by emailing me at McMigran@hotmail.com. |
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| 04/15/01 Gary asks "is the "square" really broken or is that really a government cover up!??" Unfortunately, the square really was broken into two triangles, it's not a government cover up. The interesting thing about this square is that there are as many points within the square as there are on one of its lines (sides), eventhough the square is of a higher dimension (square=2 dimensional, line=1). Imagine our square, whose sides are one unit long, on a Cartesian plane [(X,Y) coordinates, where X is the horizontal axis, while Y is the vertical]. The corners of our square are (0,0), (1,0), (0,1), (1,1). Any point within the square would be noted in cartesian form, using X and Y values, while any point on it's bottom line would be given as one number, only X; both would be writeen as (0.X1X2X3..., 0.Y1Y2Y3...) or 0.X1X2X3, since our lines go from 0 to 1; where X1 is the first digit of the X value, and Y1 is the first digit of the Y value, x2 is the second digit of the X value and so on. Now, for every point (0.X1X2X3X4....,Y1Y2Y3Y4...) within the square, there exists a point 0.X1Y1X2Y2X3Y3X4Y4..... on the line. Example, a point (0.256,0.831) in the square has a mate 0.285361 on the line. As you can see, a one-to-one transformation is possible for the square and the line. There are as many points on the line as there are in the square, eventhough the square is of a higher dimension. This is actually true for all squares, not just Gary's square, and was originally proven by the great mathematician Georg Cantor, known today as the father of set theory. People found this and his other work very hard to believe, and he was fiercly opposed by many mathematicians of his day, most noticably Kronecker; and it might have been becasue of their constant attacks on him that Cantor went insane and eventually died at a mental intstitution. Okay, that's enough. |
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| Our next to questions come from Tim. "If you notice, as our technology increases day by day, things are made smaller and smaller for more practical use...so my question is; how smaller will things get? (thinking 100 years from today)" and "Are you the center of the universe as you claim to [be]?" To answer your first question: it depends. Not all thing become smaller as our technology improves; I just heard about plans for a super huge airplane from Boing, then there's those SUVs, big screen TVs, etc. I think the things that seem to shrink more and more are cellular phones, computers, portable music/entertainment devices, etc. Basicly, humans aren't shrinking, so the things whose use depends in any way on human contact/operation cannot get much smaller than they currently are. Cars for example, they can't get any smaller then they are, or else we won't fit in them; cell phones can only get a little smaller before their small size becomes an obstacle for their users, computer screens can't get too small either (though I recently saw some monitor-glasses, which I think are as small as viewing screens will get, and even at that size it's a stretch). Devices which only hold information can and will get very very small. Computers themselves (not the monitors), music devices, game systems (excluding controllers) etc. will most likely keep getting smaller. As to how small, about 1.37 cubic inches, wait, no, 1.368 cubic inches. As for your second question, yes, I am the center of the universe. Things that happened before my birth: ice age, black plague, WWI, WWII, AIDS, etc. Thing that will happen after my death: explosion of the sun, eradication of life on earth, demise of all other stars (stars are dying much quicker than they are being "born", we might eventually run out), etc.. So, as you can see, as with any other center, I hold the thing of which I am the center together. The absence of The McMigran only leads to trouble. |
| Our last -and in my opinion best- question for today comes from Robin. "Dear McMigran, So what's the deal with the Grimace!! What is he? I mean Mayor McCheese is a cheeseburger, Birdie is a chicken product, the Fry Guys are french frys, the Hamburglar is just some guy who steals hamburgers, the McNuggets characters are chicken McNuggets, so what the hell is Grimace??!!?!?? I work at a McDonald's and haven't been able to figure it out." Robin, this is the most important question ever asked. I believe the government has their best scientists and super-computers working on it at a secret site in Wyoming. This is one of those questions that might take me long to answer, so consider this the first of many attempts. We have been trying to capture the (or maybe a, if they are a whole race) Grimace for decades with no luck. The following link wil lead you to a secretly shot video of the Grimace in his natural enviornment, like The McMigran, he lives in a shack, however, unlike The McMigran, his has a 70s decor, with a couple of lava lamps, in the secret room to the right there is a strange table, no doubt used for plotting and/or scheming, I tried to look at it, but I was in lack of the required super-technology, a shockwave player. Here is the link, you may view it yourself and aid us in our quest to understand the glorious mystery that is Grimace: Top-Secret Grimace Footage. I initially believed he was Grape Soda, but McDonald's doesn't serve grape soda. So, after carefull study, I believe I have come up with a very probable explanation of the Grimace: as we know, McDonalds didn't always want to see us smile, and didn't always make our food after we ordered it; in the early days, our food was pre-made and kept warm under heat-lamps. Of course, these heat lamps had to be perfected through careful testing and experimentation. McDonalds originally wanted to use a highly radioactive plutonium/uranium mixture to keep the food warm, and that's where our friend comes in. The Grimace was originally a McDonalds food item, either a McNugget or a burger, who was abducted and used as a guinne-pig (hence his appearance) in a series of radiation experiments. The cruel experiments left him the pruple, super-power endowed, giant he is today. The government...err...McDonalds, fearing revenge from the mighty Grimace, brain washed him and erased his memory. Now, the once majestic Grimace is no more than a happy, drugged-up, smiling, friendly, corporate-whore. |
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| 04/16/01 Rkerns wanted to know "Where the sources of water are located for the Los Angeles area" There are three main sources for water in Los Angeles: the Los Angeles Aqueducts (LAA), local groundwater, and water imported by the Metropolitan Water District of Souther California (MWD). In the past 5 or so years we have also been using recycled water, but it doesn't constitute a large share of our total suplly. The Los Angeles Aqueducts, which is where we (The McMigran is from Los Angeles) get 2/3 (66.6%) of our water are comprised of the First LAA, Second LAA, and Aqueduct Reservoirs. The first LAA is the 338 mile Owens River aqueduct which transports snowmelt from the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Along the way, it travels though the Mono Craters to obtain additional water from the Mono Basin's four mountain streams. This 338 mile, 300 million gallons/day engineering marvel uses only the force of gravity to transport its water into LA. The second LAA was built in 1970 to meet the city's growning water demand and transports additional water from the Owen's Valler, it increased the size of the aqueduct's water supply to 500 million gallons per day. On their way to LA, the water from the aquedcuts passes through 11 power plants, generating hydroelectric energy. The major aqueduct reservoirs which store some of this water are: Grant Lake (Capacity: 47,000 AF), Long Valley (183,200), Pleasant Valley (3,000), Tinemaha (6,300), North and South Haiwee (39,300), Bouquet (26,400), Fairmont (490). We obtain our local groundwater from the San Fernando, Central, Sylmar, and West Coast groundwater basins. Local groundwater makes up about 15% of the city's total water supply. The MWD, constituting about 20% of the total supply, gets its water from all over the place and serves 23 California cities, so I don't know exaclty where the water they sell to Los Angeles comes from. This information is fairly recent, and comes from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. I hope I've answered your question, you might want to get a map and look up the various sites I mentioned. I also hope you're not planning on poisoning LA's water supply. |
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| 04/18/01 I want to thank Neo for shedding more light on the Grimace mystery. He writes: "McMigran, the Grimace is, get this: a magnified, gigantic tastebud. I know this becasue when I was about 7, I ordered a Happy Meal from McDonald's. On the side of the cardboard box was a puzzle with the question "what is a grimace?" on it. After completing the puzzle the chilling answer revealed itslef." Wow. A tastebud? Wow. Thanks Neo. Neo then went on to ask: "Who's cooler, Batman or Superman? Notice I did NOT say 'who would win in a fight?' Interesting fact (from the LA times, no less): 33% of women surveyed want to sleep with Superman, 36% want to sleep with Batman." In my opinion, Batman is a lot cooler. First of all, Batman is not only a superhero, but also a detective, and scientist. All scientists are cool, as are many detectives. Gadgets are also a factor; Batman has everything, Superman doesn't even have a car. Unlike Superman, Batman doesn't have any powers, he is just very smart and somewhat hardworking. Batman is a better role model for children, he teaches them that intelligence and perseverance pay off, while Superman teaches them that unless they are aliens with superpowers, they won't get anywhere in the superhero business. So, Batman is much cooler than Superman. Also, Bruce Wayne is a lot cooler than Clark Kent. That's it for today, ask your questions at McMigran@hotmail.com |
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| 04/19/01 Today's first question comes from....someone. They ask: "Do monocytes have any phagocytic abilities or do they just happen to become macrophages?" Yes, they do have phagocytic abilities. Monocytes are produced within the bone marrow, circulate in the blood for a few hours, then are distributed to tissues where they differentiate into macrophages, Kupffer cells, osteoclasts etc. When they become macrophages, they lose the enzyme myeloperoxidase, enlarge, increase their cytoplasmic volume and hydrolytic lysosomal enzyme content, increase their phagocytic abilities and develop into macrophages. Macrophages AND monocytes are "professional" phagocytes capable of particle uptake. |
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| Peter wanted to know "why clocks go in a closkwise direction?" Because in the olden days, when we used sundials, the shadow went in what we now call a clockwise direction. Since that's what we were used to, when we made clocks we kept the clockwise direction, and gave it the name clockwise. |
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| Megugrundle asks "Why is there a word "smegma"? Does anyone really talk about it or write about it or have a need to describe what smegma is?....I'm really counting on you since this is a topic in my English 101 Writing class here at UCLA." Without the word "smegma", how would you have asked your question? Search Yahoo for "smegma" and you will get 1890 matches, so people do write about it. I am at this moment sitting next to a person who claims to have used it very frequently over the past year. Then, of course, there's a need to describe things; smegma exists, so the word "smegma" must also exist. |
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| I have Grimace news directly from the McDonald's Corporation. He's neither a radioactive mutated nugget as I thought, nor a tastebud as Neo said; he's just the Grimace, but he used to be a milkshake. I wrote them a letter a few days ago, and received a response today. Sandy, a home office customer satisfaction representative writes: "Hello McMigran, Thank you for contacting McDonald's and for your interest in the big, purple, jolley fellow, named Grimace, who resides in McDonaldland When Grimace first emerged from his cave and confronted the other citizens of McDonaldland, he expected them to be frightened of him. While initially conceived as a character representing McDonald's shakes, Grimace has transcended his role and is now seen as Ronald's right-hand man, and closest friend. He still, though, retains his love of McDonald's shakes. You may find it interesting to know that when Grimace first joined McDonald land, he had four arms. At the time, he was the evil Grimace who stole everybody's milkshakes. However, by 1974 he became the big, fuzzy purple fellow that everyone knows and loves today." There you have it, he was conceived as a milkshake, but then started drinking everyone's shakes, and since McDonald's didn't want a cannibal in McDonaldland, he became just a Grimace. Thanks a lot Sandy!. That's it for today, thanks. |
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| Our last, and most confusing, question for the day comes from JAYspud. He asks: "if your theory about gary's "square" hold true. what if we replaced the "square" with a Universe contained within a fence, whos inside has become it's outside and it's outside has become it's inside. Now consider if this fenced-out Universe had an identical pair within it's inside. Because both fenced-out Universes are within eachother, and because for every point within one fenced universe, there is a point in the other universe...Is it possible for one universe to contain a universe of the exact same size?" Since only JAYspud and I know what the above means, let me clear it up for the rest of you. This came as a result of a joke in which I build a fence around myself, define the area between myself and the fence to be the outside, and voila, the universe is now inside my fence. Of course, it's not the universe, it's the rest of the universe, but in order for me to answer this question we'll ignore that. I can make a valid argument here, but it won't be true because it's based on an invalid premise, so don't take it too seriously. What JAYspud is asking is this: if he also builds a fence around himself, and defines the inside of his fence to be the outside, then the universe, which includes me and my fence, is now inside his fence; but he and his fence are inside my fence, so how can his universe be inside my universe if my universe is inside his? We can avoid all of this by saying that it's not the universe, it's the rest of the universe, and that will be the true and logical answer, but for the sake of fun, let's not. Now, draw two mutually exclusive circles on a sheet of paper, color everything outside the first circle blue, color everything outside the second circle yellow. Any point that is either blue or green is inside JAY's universe, any point that is yellow or green is inside my universe. Notice that the entire outside of my universe is inside JAY's universe, and the entire outside of his universe is inside mine. Common sense dictates that if the entire outside (on all sides) of something is inside something else, than the something, in it's entirety, must be inside the something else. So, it apears that his universe is completely inside my universe, and my universe is at the same time completely inside his. If that isn't confusing enough, consider this: since his universe's inside contains all of my universe's outside, but my universe contains his universe, than my universe contains its own outside, so that anything outside it is inside it. Of course, none of this holds true in real life becasue it was only the rests of the universe and not the entire universe that was in each of our fences, so that in actuality both of our "universes" are inside the one true universe, but sometime's it's fun to explore the what-ifs. This ends the first week of operations for The Migran McMigran's Shack of Knowledge |
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| 04/21/01 Today's first and only question comes from Neo. "Why do people (including myself) sing better in the shower?" I read about this in a physics book some time ago, and it's all in the acoustics. Showers are small, and the small space reflects sound waves, prolonging both low and high frequencies; this causes your singing to sound fuller, richer, and all-around better. In a large, open area, you only hear your voice as you are producing it, in the shower though, you hear it then and a very short time after when it is reflected back to you, this makes the song sound a lot better. That's it, thanks. |
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| 04/28/01 Hi, I took last week off to catch up on some homework. Today, our first question comes from Gary LittleBear, he writes: "here goes nothing......I want to know one thing, and one thing only, and I don't care if you put the question on your site or not. You probably won't put it on the site, because you haven't a hope of answering this one correctly anyway. Where do I have to go to find the love of my life? Where is she, what is her name, and how do I get to her in the speediest possible fashion? See what I mean? You haven't a hope of answering that one, dude! Go for it! That's what you get for setting yourself up like that, man, you were just begging for me to come along and rain on your parade! LOL! Sincerely, Gary LittleBear" Well, I did put it on the site; all questions I receive end up on the site....eventually. Now, to answer your questions in the order they were asked: Outsidee; United States, don't know, car; no. There you go Little Bear. |
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| Okay, the next question is from LONGHAIR. She asks "There is a name, or word for the smell of rain, just as it starts to rain? I know it starts with a, A, ? Thanks." Longhair, I searched the dictionary for entries containing "rain" and did not come accross anything close to the word you're looking for. However, there is a bacterium associated with the smell of rain that begins with the letter A, so maybe that's what you meant. If so, the word you are looking for is Actinomycetes, a type of bacteria that grow in damp soil. These bacteria release spores, the force and wetness from raindrops impacting the ground releases them into the air, where the moisture from the rain acts as an aerosol and spreads them around, carrying them up to our noses where we breath them in and enjoy the smell. However, this doesn't usually happen just as it starts to rain, it often comes just as it stops raining. Another source of rain-smell is volitile oils released by plants and trees, the rain reacts with these and turns them into gases which we smell, I don't however know of any word connected with this that begins with an A. By the way, both of the above are pleasant smells. Anyway, I don't know the word you're looking for, but I'll keep searching the dictionary and will let you know if I find it. |
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| The next question comes from Richard. He wants to know "What type of wood was used on a battleship deck?" Teak. Though it would depend heavily on when and where the ship was built, the most common type is teak. |
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| Sherry Hollis asks: "When will I meet my teen idol, Leif Garrett?" That all depends on where you are and how hard you try. Tell you what, why don't you send me some information about yourself (location, phone, etc.) and I'll either find an approximate probability of you meeting him, or better yet, have him call you. So send me your phone number and I'll try to get Mr. Garrett to give you a call. |
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| Here's one from Joe: "What is the best way to teach a youngter (6 or 7 years old) to ride a bike?" I don't know what the "best" way is, but I'll tell you the one that worked on me and a lot of my friends. We never really used training wheels, but that's up to you. Take the kid out, help him get on the bike, and hold on to the bike while he rides. Basicly, at first you just kind of pull him around while he gets the hang of pedalling. Then, after a while, only hold on to the back of the seat while he rides around. After some more time, when he's riding and your hanging on to the back of the seat, let go without telling him. He'll probably notice after a while, but he would have ridden long enough to get his confidence up and start trying it on his own. The rest is just practice (and some bruises and scrapes). I used "he" instead of "she" because It's shorter, not becasue I think that only males should ride bikes. Of course, I'm not an expert, but these people appear to be, so you might find this helpfull (but they basicly tell you what I did, with a few more details and warnings): link |
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| Okay, we're not done yet. Our next question is from Justin. "What exactly is in a hotdog and in spam?" Okay, to find the exact ingredients, look on their labels. I will, however, give you the basics. Let's begin with hotdogs: meat, meat fat, a cereal filler (flour, oatmeal, etc.), very little egg-white, and spices. Actualy, a lot of hotdogs these days contain very little or no cereal-filler. They girnd these up and stuff the mush into a casing. Also, hotdogs contain preservatives and sodium nitrate (the sodium nitrate is responsible for their pink color). On to spam, destroyer of Nazis (Nikita Kruschev claimed that without Spam the Soviet Army would not have been able to defeat the Germans.).. Spam is pretty much the same as hotdogs: chopped pork shoulder meat with some ham meat added; salt (for binding, flavor, and firmness); water (for mixing purposes); sugar; and sodium nitrate. There you have it. |
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| Lex asks "Why are most police cars painted black and white?" I think in NY they're blue, but here in LA they are black and white. Anyway, I first assumed this was so that you could see them both during the day (black) and at night (white), but then a friend of mine suggested something even better: long ago, when the government was deciding what color(s) to paint police cars, they probably decided to save a lot of money and use black and white, the cheapest colors. The reason for two colors is to make them distinctive, while the choice of the colors is economical. I'm trying to call the LAPD and ask them, but so far I've had no luck. |
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| On to John's question: "What is the recipe for all protein diet bread you can make at home?" I have a recipe for all protein bread, and you can make it more or less dietic by fooling around with the ingredients, but it's low fat enough the way it is. Ingredient Amount yeast 1 package warm water 4 cups nonfat dry milk 1.5 (3/2) cups honey 0.25 (1/4) cups molasses 0.25 (1/4) cups whole wheat flower 9 - 9.5 cups sunflower seeds 0.75 (3/4) cups sesame seeds 0.5 (1/2) cups eggs 2 eggs salt (optional) 0.75 (3/4) teaspoons olive oil 0.5 (1/2) cup Yield: 3 large loaves Dissolve yeast in 1/4 c water. In separte bowl mix dry milk with 1 3/4 c water [beat to dissolve if needed], addhoney and molasses and then the rest of the water [2c]. Mix in 5 c flour slowly, cover with damp cloth and let rise 45 minutes for sponge. Mix in seeds and let stand 10 minutes so seeds can soak up some liquid. Mix in eggs, salt and oil, knead in the rest of the flour to make a dough that barely sticks to your fingers. Place in well greased pans, cover and rise about1 hour. Bake in 325 oven 45 minutes or till done. Enjoy your bread, I like mine with char-broil grilled ground beef patties, cheese, tomatoes, letuce, pickles, chilli, ketchup, and regular bread instead of this protein stuff. |
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| I'm getting tired, so the following question from Sue will be the last one for today. "Hi, I was wondering what is up with UFO's and space aliens?? You never hear to much about them anymore!!Have you heard anything??" Sue, I don't think anything new is up with them. People still see them and talk about them a lot. The whole Pheonix triangle thing was a big deal some years ago. Rather than tell you what I've heard, I'll give you a link to a national agency that keeps track of sightings ran by Peter Davenport. National UFO Reporting Center. |
| I'm beat, so the rest of your questions will be answered tomorrow. |
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| 04/30/01 Okay, we've got a baseball queztion today from M., who asks "who pitched the longest complete game in world series history?" The answer is Babe Ruth. In the 1916 series, Ruth, playing for the Boston Red Sox at the time, pitched a 14 inning victory (2 to 1) against the Brooklyn Dodgers. |
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| Doug asks "Hi there...I think you have a great site, but my question is: (I bet you've heard this one before) why is your site such a mess? You've got words overlapping words, paragraphs overlapping paragraphs, and links overlapping everything?" I'm glad you like the site. The site is a mess becasue you're viewing it with Netscape. If you use Internet Explorer, it should work fine. I'm not saying that one is better than the other or anything like that...wait, no, I am saying that, IE is a lot better. I also prefer Bargs root beer over Mug, or was that Mug over Bargs, damn it, I can never tell those two apart, but one is a lot better than the other. |
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| Gary Little Bear writes "Even the very name of your site, "Shack of Knowledge", is somewhat misleading and constitutes false advertising in that it implies that you do indeed possess knowledge whereby you are able to give people "the answers" to the questions that may merely nibble at their "need to know" or are burning intensely in their souls. Perhaps "Shack Of Inquiries" or "Shack Of Nothing But Wild-Assed Guesses" might have been more appropriate given your explanation below. I would therefore appreciate it very much if you could find it in you heart to forget I ever so much as even hinted at a question, let alone had the temerity, not to mention the unmitigated gall, to really expect a real and/or viable and/or even somewhat useful answer. So long, ciao, bon chance, buona fortuna, hasta la vista, arrivaderci, slan leat, slan abhaile, sayonara, auf wiedersehn, ta ta, cheerio, pip pip, cheeriebye, hasta luego, ttfn, and of course, here's looking up your old address!" I can't figure out where the question is, so I don't know how to answer. "Shack Of Nothing But Wild-Assed Guesses" sounds pretty good to me. |
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| The next one is from Joseph Quinn. "The Cotswold churchyard (England) is linked to a story that something untoward would happen if a hundredth yew tree was planted, so for centuries whenever one was removed, died, struck by lightening etc it had to be replaced by only one, so that the total will remain under 100 yew trees. - wish I knew the full story ! Please respond to the above address. Thank you. Joseph Quinn, in Oregon." The story I found is not that a 100th tree shouldn't be planted, but that it cannot be planted. Apparently, the devil himself will thwart any attempt to plant the 100th tree. Of course, this is only a myth, according to a source in England, there are about 120 Yew trees at the Cotswold (actualy, Painswick) church today.s\ |
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| Sharon Boone writes: "My husband is the County Commander of the American Legion in Monmouth County NJ. In July he will have a testimonial dinner honoring him. He has 10 officers and it is customary to reward your officers for a job well done. Forget Cross-pen sets, plaques, and luggage.These have been given by past commanders. When he was Post Commander, he had mugs made with the American Legion logo on them. Very nice for someone at this level. What would be your suggestion? We have a catalog but nothing new or unusual is in it.He has to spend a low of $15.00 p/officer. can you help? Thanks" Past commanders gave luggage? I like the Legion Logo idea, perhaps you could have it put on knives (regular or those multi-function ones), but being in the American Legion, they probably had those issued to them. My next suggestion is some nice lighters with the logo on them, if the officers smoke that is. The third of my incredibly lame suggestions is wallets. I don't know, if any of my visitors (both of you) have any ideas, maybe they can send them to me. Pizza is under 15 bucks, and so are punk rock CDs, you can't go wrong with either of those. Congratulations to your husband, he's like Van Damme. |
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| Nan asks "Is there a formal name for the smiling and frowning masks that have come to represent drama?" Not really, they're usually called comedy/tragedy masks, or just drama masks. |
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| Our next question is from Stoner. "so why don't you ever have links to magic mushrooms on your page? huh? huh?" Judging from your "huh? huh?", I think you've had a few too many magic mushrooms as it is, but I can't be sure until I hear you laugh (stoners have a distinctive laugh, they kind of inhale or something while they laugh). |
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| And today's final question comes from Mr. Pissed. "Is it legal to stuff flyers for your website in people's mailboxes?" No sir, it isn't. I'm sorry, I'll try not to do it again in the near future. |