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Hey Guys,

February is Black History Month, a time for Americans to reflect on the cultural contributions African Americans have made to the United States. Some may be wondering how Black History Month became an official celebration. And why is it celebrated in February? Here’s the scoop.

Most history experts give credit to Dr. Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950). Woodson is commonly referred to as the father of black history. Carter led a challenging but amazing life. At the age of 19, he entered high school and completed his studies in two years. He then studied Greek and Latin, while working in a mine shaft. Eventually, he went to the University of Chicago, and finally got his PhD from Harvard University.

But what does that have to do with Black History Month? After founding the Journal of Negro History, Woodson was instrumental (read: it wouldn’t have happened without him) in organizing “Negro History Week.” Woodson chose a week in February as a way to honor the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln, who abolished slavery, and Frederick Douglass, the iconic civil rights activist.

Negro History Week became Black History Month during the 1960s. “No other single thing,” Woodson said, “has done so much to dramatize the achievement of persons of African blood.” According to AppalachianHistory.net, Woodson often remarked that “he hoped the time would come when Negro History Week would be unnecessary; when all Americans would willingly recognize the contributions of black Americans as a legitimate and integral part of the history of this country.”

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Mike

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Hey Guys,

Of all the urban legends floating around college campuses, I think one stands out above all others. If your roommate dies, the legend says, you will automatically get a 4.0 GPA for the semester. True or false?

This one is 100% false, kids. Nobody knows for sure just how the story got started, but according to the experts at Snopes.com, stressed-out students were likely responsible. As the years went by, the story got told more and more, until people actually started to believe it.

And, as we pointed out in a piece from Ask Yahoo! several years ago, the notion does sort of make sense. After all, the death of a roommate would be extremely traumatic. Expecting a student to continue on with his or her studies does seem unreasonable. But, while students in this unfortunate situation are often given bereavement leave, an automatic 4.0 does not happen.

What are some of your favorite urban legends? Are they true, false, or unknown? Please leave a note below and let me know.

Thanks for reading,

Mike

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Hey Guys,

Anyone who tosses a crumpled up piece of paper at the garbage can and misses is likely to hear a familiar expression from watchers: “Close but no cigar,” they’ll shout. How did this expression originate?

Like a lot of old timey phrases, nobody is 100% sure about how this one became so popular. However, most idiom experts agree that it likely originated at county fairs and the like during the mid-1900s.

According to The Phrase Finder, “fairground stalls gave out cigars as prizes, and this is the most likely source, although there’s no definitive evidence to prove that.”

The site writes that “Close, but no cigar” appeared in print form for the first time in 1935 as a line of dialogue in “Annie Oakley” starring the great Barbara Stanwyck in the title role.

The site, Take Our Word For It gets a little more specific with its theory. “It is widely assumed that it arose in carnivals, where the prize for ringing a bell with a sledge hammer was often a cigar. If you got close to ringing the bell but didn’t actually hit it, you might be told, ‘close but no cigar.’”

Got any favorite phrases with mysterious origins? Leave a comment below!

Thanks for reading,

Mike

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**Secret Revealed**

My friend Todd told me about this secret many years ago. He has rebuilt more cars in his suburban home garage than anyone I know.

I met Todd at my first part time job, we used to work early weekend mornings during high school. I was too young to have a driver’s license, so my dedicated parents would always drive me.

That was before remote starters, so I would usually start the car a few minutes before leaving. Actually, that’s not true — my Dad was usually the one starting the car a few minutes before I was ready to leave, which was about 10 minutes after I told him I would be ready to leave.

It didn’t make much difference to the car — it was still cold for at least half the trip. On the rare occasion that I started the car, I would turn the heater to its hottest setting and turn the fan to full blast. That’s actually the slowest way to warm the car, so lets talk more about the fastest way.

The trick is very counter-intuitive, so I want to briefly explain how the car heater works for this secret to make sense.

The item pictured above is a heater core. Most cars have one of these inside the dashboard. Hot liquid passes through the fins, which are there to create a lot of surface area so that air passing through can pickup as much heat as possible before it comes out the air vents. It works just like the radiators in many older homes in that sense.

The liquid is heated by excess engine heat, so if the engine is cold then you won’t get any hot air from your air vents. Your engine has a cooling system which is designed to draw heat away from the engine so it does not overheat. The heater works in a similar way, removing heat from the engine and using it to heat the air being blown into the passenger compartment. So, when you turn on your heater, you are essentially cooling the engine by transferring some of its heat to the inside of the car.

To heat the engine faster, you want to stop that heat loss. It’s similar to heating your oven, you don’t leave the door open because you’ll lose all of the heat.

You want to turn the heater off by moving the temperature control all the way to cold. Also, turn the fan off to ensure it is not blowing air across the heater core which transfers heat away from it. This will trap the heat in the engine cooling system (reducing its ability to cool the engine) and therefore heat the engine more quickly. It traps the heat in, just like closing the oven door.

If your car has an automatic climate control system that allows you to dial in the temperature then there is no need to worry about these suggestions to make them heat the car faster, most of these cars do it automatically. If your car has automatic climate control, it’s normal that the fan doesn’t blow when you first start the cold car. The vehicle engineers already know this secret and have programmed it into the car. The fan does not run until there is adequate engine heat to warm the air (unless you want to warm the car more slowly and manually activate the fan).

This knowledge is helpful to all drivers, even if you never plan to drive in cold weather. If your engine is overheating in hot weather, set the climate control to hot, turn the fan on full blast and roll down all the windows. This will dissipate engine heat through the heater core and help cool the engine.

Thanks to Todd M for sharing this secret many years ago.

Chad Upton is the editor-in-chief of Broken Secrets and an official Yahoo Answers contributor.

Sources: 2CarPros, How Stuff Works

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Hey Guys,

The other day, I spotted a scofflaw jog across the street without using a crosswalk. As I stood there, twiddling my thumbs waiting for the light to change, I got to wondering about the expression “jaywalking.” How did that term get its start?

Back in early 20th century the term “jay” was slang for country bumpkin or hick. To put it another way, a type of person who didn’t have any experience in the big, scary city. Back then, many people were seeing cities for the first time and didn’t know the rules of the road. As a consequence, they wandered out into streets and risked being hit by cars. People called these folks “jaywalkers.” It was not a term of endearment.

The Straight Dope pins down the origin to Boston. A 1927 issue of Harpers wrote, “the Bostonian … has reduced ‘a pedestrian who crosses streets in disregard of traffic signals’ to the compact ‘jaywalking.’”

These days, folks who jaywalk risk more than being honked at by angry drivers. Hefty fines ($191 in Los Angeles, for example) can result. Or, if they’re having a really bad day, a trip to the hospital.

Thanks for reading,

Mike

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