Yahoo! Answers

Hey Guys,

When it comes to home repairs, I’m not the handiest guy around. But I do have one sure-fire tool that fixes just about any problem I come across. Duct tape. I’ve used duct tape to “fix” cupboards, shelves, and even a refrigerator door (one of my finest hours). Who do I have to thank for this awesome invention?

A search on “duct tape inventor” yielded solid results. My first stop was at a blog from Ace Hardware. “The Helpful Hardware Blog” credits Johnson & Johnson with creating duct tape back in 1930. Interestingly, the tape was initially intended for use in hospitals, and due to its waterproof materials, it was dubbed “Drybak.”

Drybak didn’t become duct tape (and its grey color) until after World War II. Apparently, that’s when air conditioning hit the mainstream. Duct tape (as it soon became known) was used by repairmen to seal off drafty ducts.

Over the years, duct tape has acquired an enviable fan base. There are dozens of sites that list all the different uses one can find for the sticky substance. The Duck Tape Club offers contests for the most creative use of the all-purpose tape. But, if you ask me, that honor has to go folks who choose to put duct tape on warts. Though it hasn’t been proven to help, many feel a little duct tape on those unsightly blemishes will make them disappear.

And what about you? What’s your most creative use of duct tape? I’ve seen car bumpers held up with it, wallets made out of it, and even prom dresses and tuxedos reated from it. Please leave a comment below and share the love.

Thanks for reading,

Mike

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Photo by uggboy

As Thanksgiving approaches, stores are beginning to gear up for their big holiday sales and “Black Friday”—one of the biggest (if not the biggest) shopping days of the year. With the economy slowly starting to recover from the recession, retailers are hoping for a prosperous shopping season, and shoppers are looking for a great deal.

If you’re not interested in battling the throngs of shoppers that flock to the stores on Black Friday, perhaps waiting for “Cyber Monday” is more your speed. Similar to Black Friday, Cyber Monday refers to the first Monday following Thanksgiving, when many shoppers return to their offices and click online to continue their holiday shopping. Many e-tailers offer free shipping, online discounts, and other deals on this day to lure shoppers to their websites.

With just 22 days until the start of Hanukkah and 36 days ’til Christmas, the holiday shopping season is nearly here. (Looking for a Black Friday Survival Guide? Stop by Shine for a few tips on how to weather the sales!)

Do you typically go shopping on Black Friday? If so, do you make it out for the early sales or do you visit the stores later in the day? Or, do you avoid the stores altogether and wait for Cyber Monday? Tell us your holiday shopping habits by leaving a comment!

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Hey Guys,

In today’s economic downturn, holding onto a job has become, well, a full time job. With so many workers living in perpetual fear of the pink slip, I got to wondering how the term originated. Once upon a time, were workers given actual pink pieces of paper when they were fired? Seems almost too cruel to be true.

After a Yahoo! search on “pink slip origin,” I came across this interesting blog from the urban legend experts at Snopes.com. They delve into the history of the phrase and note that its origin has never been verified.

But the lack of evidence hasn’t stopped the theories. One of the most popular explanations has to do with Henry Ford. According to legend, back in the early days of Ford Motor Company, when an employee was performing substandard work, he or she would find a pink slip of paper in their cubbyhole. Pink slip meant do not come back.

Good story, but nobody knows if it’s really true. An interview with an editor from the Oxford English Dictionary on PublicRadio.org offers a similar explanation (or lack thereof). Despite historians having looked into the origin of the phrase, nobody has ever found an actual example of a pink slip of paper having ever been used to fire someone.

The editor does note that pink pieces of paper have long held connections to rejection. In the olden days, when a typographer made a mistake, he or she was given a note on pink paper. The theory: if a typographer got enough of those dreaded pink notes, he or she would likely have been shown the door.

There are plenty of stories online from people who say they were given literal pink slips, but apparently none have satisfied historians. Have any of you ever received an actual pink slip when laid off? The closest I ever came was a terse phone call from my boss when I was a teenager. I would have fired me, too.

Thanks for reading,

Mike

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Did you know that the first “Ask Mike” column appeared on the Yahoo! Answers blog on January 8^th, 2008? Since then, Mike has written 390 posts on topics that include everything under the sun- ranging from posts on whitening your teeth, to how to fix a bad haircut, to the most common words used in the English language. Mike has covered a bit of everything.

Over the years, you’ve left literally thousands of comments on Mike’s blogs discussing his posts, suggesting new topics for him to post about, and engaging with other Answers community members.

Now, we’d like to invite you to continue the discussion on the Ask Mike Yahoo! Group, found here: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AskMikeonAnswers/ – you’ll still find Mike’s posts here on the Answers blog, but will now have the opportunity of shaping future entries by joining the group and suggesting ideas for future posts!

Feel free to stop by the group, share your thoughts and suggestions, and who knows, maybe your ideas will be featured in the next “Ask Mike” column!

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We know that when visiting Yahoo! Answers you’re here either to ask a question or answer a question. For many of you, your main objective is to lend a hand and answer as many questions about your area of expertise as possible, but often, you’re unable to easily find the right types of questions.

While a basic search (using the top search bar) will produce quick search results, the advanced search function will help you pinpoint specific terms within targeted categories.

Answers community member Calimecita is well known across the community for her expertise in Biology/Zoology and has worked with us to provide useful Answers tips from Answers users.  Read on for her tips:

“Using Advanced Search you can:

• Find questions that match specific words or phrases, and/or exclude specific terms
• Search questions or best answers only
• Search by category or subcategory
• Choose to search among all English vs. only your home portal questions
• Filter by question status (open, resolved, undecided)
• Restrict by question time frame

You also have the option of saving this search and making it your default “advanced search” for the future by checking the “Make this my default search” box.

Says Cali: “With Advanced Search, I can locate open questions about specific topics quickly and efficiently, without restricting myself to a single category. I’ve even set up a few Yahoo! Alerts based on the RSS feeds from these Search results, so that I receive those questions as emails.”

“When I need an Answer, I restrict my search to “Resolved Questions” only and use some of the other options, such as “search for exact phrase” and “none of these words”, to find very specific content (for example, information about turkeys that doesn’t involve Thanksgiving recipes, or a question about vampires – not the Twilight kind ).

I see lots of comments and requests in the Suggestion Board for ways to do these things – and many users don’t know that Advanced Search is the answer.”

For an even more in-depth look at what the advanced search feature can do for you, stop by Calimecita’s Unofficial Answers Tutorial, found here: http://calitorial.webs.com/searchsort.htm

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