Yahoo! Answers

Hey Guys,

A wise person once told me to avoid clichés like the plague. The origin of these overly used phrases is a popular topic within Yahoo! Answers. Today, I tried to get to the bottom of one of our most overly used and misunderstood clichés: saved by the bell.

I always assumed this one originated with boxing. A pugilist was knocked to the ground, but because the round-ending bell rang before he was counted out by the ref, the downed boxer was not defeated. Hence, he was saved by the bell. Sounds right, but that may not be where the phrase originally came from.

Phrases.org, one of my favorite sites, explains that there is another, very popular theory regarding the origin of the phrase. Some experts believe that the phrase originated not in the boxing ring, but in the cemetery. “There is a widespread notion that the phrase is from the 17th century and that it describes people being saved from being buried alive by using a coffin with a bell attached.”

Wait, what? People being buried alive? Yeah, well, apparently the science of identifying dead bodies wasn’t as advanced back then. People entered comas and were believed to be dead, but weren’t. Fortunately, people knew that sometimes “mistakes are made,” so they buried the dead with a bell. If it turned out that the departed wasn’t really dead, he or she would then ring the bell, and hopefully, somebody would dig them up. “Hopefully” being the key word.

But not everybody agrees with this theory. Snopes.com, another wonderful site, writes that the phrase has nothing to do with the prematurely buried asking for a second chance. The columnist insists the phrase started with boxing. All the stuff about bells and cemeteries is just a Web rumor.

What do you guys think? Do you have a definitive answer to the origin of “saved by the bell”? Feel free to make your case in the comments below and please include a supporting link or two. Looking forward to checking ‘em all out. And please, no Zack Morris jokes.

Thanks for reading,

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Photo by freakapotimus
U2 never ceases to amaze me. Although construction of their Dublin skyscraper has been postponed because of economic troubles, the band is keeping busy. Their first studio release in five years debuts in a few weeks, and Bono and The Edge are composing the music and lyrics for a Spider-Man musical-yes, a Spider-Man musical-and it will reportedly be the most expensive Broadway production ever staged.

With great power comes great responsibility. In other words, this has the potential to be powerfully awesome, or just powerfully awful. Live theater relies so much on spectacle and shock value, it’s hard to know what to expect, and my knee-jerk reaction is always, “Really? What sane person would pay to watch that?”

I’ve heard great things about “Bat Boy: The Musical” and “Jerry Springer: The Opera.” But just reading the names of “Shopping: The Musical” and “Emo: The Musical” makes me think people have finally run out of good ideas.

It’s not like older musicals were any less silly. (Ahem, “Starlight Express” anyone?) But plenty of them stand the test of time. “Little Shop of Horrors” is a preposterous but remarkably good show.

Without a doubt, musicals are an acquired taste. But for those of you who don’t wince at the thought of sitting in a dark, crowded room watching grown men and women dance and sing for hours on end, I have some questions: What is the continuing appeal of musical theater, particularly in comparison to film? And if you’ve seen some of the more outrageous musicals, what made them good or bad?

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Hey Guys,

With apologies to Las Vegas, nobody knows how to party quite like they do down in New Orleans. Though the southern city has been through much heartbreak in recent years, it still celebrates Mardi Gras with abandon. The festival is coming to its annual close in the Big Easy. Before it does, folks want to know more about the party’s history, beads, and what exactly “Mardi Gras” means.

I did some browsing around the Web and learned that the festival started thousands of years ago. However, according to the experts at History.com, the first American Mardi Gras was celebrated on March 3, 1699 “near modern-day New Orleans.” Another website writes that “the earliest reference to Mardi Gras ‘Carnival’ appears in a 1781 report to the Spanish colonial governing body.” With few exceptions, the party hasn’t stopped since.

Among the many sights revelers can expect to see during Mardi Gras: ornate and unusual floats, lots of food (including pancakes), an avalanche of beads, and more than a few inebriated revelers. Anyone who took French 101 should be able to translate the actual phrase “Mardi Gras.” Literally, it means “Fat Tuesday,” the day before the season of Lent begins.

For more on the holiday, check out this list of FAQs from NOLA.com. It covers why everybody uses beads as currency, the history of the party’s official colors, and whether or not Mardi Gras is “really a Pagan holiday.” Good reading.

Do you guys have any favorite memories or experiences with Mardi Gras? Great time or overcrowded nightmare? Please leave a comment below.

Thanks for reading,

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It’s already been a year and a half since we launched Community Moderation on Answers. Every day, trusted users work together to report and remove any content that violates the Community Guidelines and Yahoo! Terms of Service. Since this is one of the topics that regularly appears in the forum, here’s a refresher for those who would like to take part.

How does Community Moderation work?

Before:

Any user could report abusive content on Answers. A Yahoo! employee then reviewed the report and decided whether to keep or to delete the content. This system is still in place.

Now:

Thanks to Community Moderation, our efforts to control abusive content on Answers have greatly increased. Once a report is submitted to Yahoo!, Community Moderation measures the reputation of both the reporter and the person being reported. The system then determines whether it can remove the reported item directly from the site based on community input or whether further review is needed.

How does the reputation system work?

You must be very familiar with the Community Guidelines in order to become one of our trusted Answers users. As you develop a better idea about what’s acceptable on Answers and begin to report content, you will build a good reputation and gain influence. The more accurate your reporting, the higher your reputation will become.

However, if you abuse Community Moderation, your reputation will suffer. With a low reputation, your power to report and remove potential abuse will be reduced, which could result in a suspension.

The community is very important to the Answers team. Without it, the site is nothing, so we have set up protection mechanisms to filter out specific targeting of one user by another. Similarly, the system promotes accurate reporters, giving them more influence.

How does the appeal system work?

Although very effective, Community Moderation is not perfect. Incorrect reports will occasionally happen and some users will find their content erroneously deleted. If your question or answer is reported, we’ll send you an email stating that it has been removed. If you feel that the system was mistaken, first read the Community Guidelines to double-check. If you still think there’s a strong case, click the “Appeal” link in the email to submit an appeal. This will be reviewed by a Yahoo! employee. If we agree, your question or answer will reappear on Answers, and whoever reported you will have less influence when they report abuse in the future.

We highly encourage you to appeal if you’ve read the Community Guidelines and are sure your content has been removed in error. If your appeal is successful, not only will your content be reinstated, but also your reputation will be boosted and those that reported you will lose influence. Of course, we would advise you not to appeal for the sake of appealing, either. If your content truly deserved to be deleted, it is very unlikely we will put it back on the site just because you’ve appealed.

How do I report spam content?

Easy! Report an abuse and indicate that it’s spam. You might remember that we used to ask you to report spam on the forum. The Community Moderation system is faster and will help you improve your reputation if you report correctly, so reporting spam using the “Report abuse” button is beneficial for everyone.

That’s our update on how Community Moderation works. We hope you found this helpful!

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Hey Guys,

Consider for a moment, the shirt. Seemingly simple. Just a piece of clothing with buttons and thread. And yet an infinite number of problems can arise. One of the more popular questions has to do with dry cleaning. Specifically, why do women pay more to have a blouse dry cleaned than man do for dress shirts?

It is a question that folks have been pondering and getting angry about for years. Heck, Slate did an exposé on the injustice back in 1998. Since then, however, dry cleaners have spoken up. On a message board from Slate, two dry cleaners argue that the reason for the price difference is that the shirts are not often treated the same way. Women’s shirts (most of ‘em, anyway) are “dry cleaned.” Men’s shirts, on the other hand, are “laundered.”

Ah, but why? Again, according to the message board, women’s shirts have to be dry cleaned for two main reasons. One, they have “different blends of fabric.” And two, most blouses are too small to fit on the presses used for laundering shirts. A dry cleaner’s official site offers a FAQ on this very topic. Shirts that may be laundered (not dry cleaned) “are pressed using a machine and then touched up with an iron by hand.” Apparently small shirts will tear if they are machine pressed. Quoth Accent Cleaners: “Shirts and blouses are priced according to the amount of work it takes to finish an item.” It’s just that women’s shirts typically require more work.

Makes sense, but not everybody is buying it. There are a slew of questions within Yahoo! Answers on this very topic, and outraged blogs, like this one, are all over the Web.

What do you guys think about the great blouse vs. shirt debate? Have you encountered this problem at your local dry cleaner? Have you asked about their pricing policy? Please leave a comment, outraged or otherwise, below.

Thanks for reading,

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