People who make grammatical errors drive me nuts. Or should I say, people whom make grammatical mistakes drive me nuts? How do you know when to say who and when to say whom?

The American Heritage Book of English Usage puts it like this: “Who is used for a grammatical subject, where a nominative pronoun such as I or he would be appropriate, and whom is used as the object of a verb or preposition.”

OK, great, but what the heck’s a nominative pronoun and what’s a preposition? Basically (and I had to look it up), a nominiative pronoun acts as the subject of a verb. For example, “Who put my underpants in the freezer?” Use the word “who” if you could swap “who” for pronouns like “I” or “she.”

Contrast that to the object of a verb, also known as a direct object. That’s when you use “whom.” An example of that would be: “You saw whom near the freezer, looking all suspicious?” Use “whom” if you can replace it with “him” or “her.” If a pronoun ends with the letter “m,” it’s an object.

The Yahoo! Style Guide puts it like this: “One trick for finding the correct form is to recast the sentence in your mind, substituting he and him for who or whom. If him sounds correct, use whom.” Keep this in mind as well: “Sometimes it’s better to just rewrite a sentence to avoid a potential grammatical error or a grammatically correct but awkward or formal-sounding construction.”

Thanks for reading,

Mike

You know how when you’re at a party and you crack your knuckles, there’s always that one guy who says you’re going to get arthritis? Is he right? Does cracking your knuckles really cause joint problems?

Nope. Cracking your knuckles is perfectly safe. When you crack your knuckles what you’re really doing is popping the joint in and out of its socket. The knuckle is held in place with a lubricant called synovial fluid. When you crack ‘em, the bones pull apart away a bit and the pressure that surrounds the fluid reduced. Bubbles form and then pop. That’s the sound you’re hearing and experts call it cavitation.

It usually takes about half an hour before you can crack again. That’s because it takes a while for “the gas to redissolve into the joint fluid. During this period of time, your knuckles won’t crack,” according to HowStuffWorks.

As for whether or not you’re hurting yourself, fear not. A doctor from The Johns Hopkins University explains that any risks associated with knuckle cracking are minor. “There is no evidence that cracking knuckles causes any damage such as arthritis in the joints.” However, one study did find that people who cracked their knuckles often did have reduced grip strength.

If, like me, you’re addicted to knuckle cracking, you might find this article from Scientific American a good read. Here’s the gist: A kid was told that the habit would lead to problems. Over 50 years, he did an experiment in which he cracked the knuckles on his left hand often. He cracked his right hand rarely. “There was no arthritis in either hand, and no apparent differences between the two hands,” he concluded

In other words, crack away.

Thanks for reading,

Mike

Baseball is the sport of choice for stat nerds. There are home runs (HR), earned run averages (ERA), runs batted in (RBIs), and, of course, strikeouts (K). But hold up — why are strikeouts abbreviated with a “K” instead of “S”? Here’s the scoop.

According to legend, the credit goes to an old school sports writer named Henry Chadwick. Apparently, Chadwick used “K” for a strikeout because the letter “K” is the last letter of the word “struck.”

Why didn’t he just use “S”? Good question. According to The Straight Dope, it’s because Chadwick had already used the “S” as shorthand for sacrifice hits. So, he went with “K.”

Chadwick, a respected sportswriter, was largely responsible for creating much of the shorthand that baseball fans use on scorecards. You know how during a double play the announcers will say something like, “That was a 6-4-3″? That’s due to Chadwick, who came up with the system used to number the fielders. A shortstop is “6,” a second baseman is “4,” a first baseman is “3,” and so on. That’s still in use today.

Chadwick died in 1908 and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame posthumously in 1938. According to the Hall, Chadwick wrote the first hard-cover book on baseball ever.

Thanks for reading and let’s play ball,

Mike

With the rise of the casual office, the men’s necktie has lost much of its mojo. Who came up with the necktie in the first place?

Opinions vary, but many believe the concept originated in Croatia. Sometime during the thirty years war of the 17th century, Croatian soldiers visited King Louis XIV of France. The soldiers apparently wore loose scarves around their necks. Louis liked the look. “By 1650, Louis and his court were wearing Croatian neck scarves instead of the full lace ruffs that had previously been fashionable.”

Some argue that the necktie goes much further back. The terracotta soldiers buried with Chinese emperor Shih Huang Ti seem to wear a kind of neck scarf that may be a type of early necktie. That’s from 210 B.C. Another possible originator — Ancient Rome. On a marble column constructed in 113 A.D., a group of soldiers appear to have neckwear.

Whether those instances “count” as neckties is open to debate, but most folks give King Louis XIV credit with making the look popular. Sister site Ask Yahoo! explains: “Exiled King Charles II of England brought the French cravat with him when he returned to his throne. Englishmen soon began sporting stylish neck scarves and tied them in as many as 100 different knots.”

Thanks for reading,

Mike

Whenever something can go wrong, it will go wrong. That cynical bit of wisdom is known as Murphy’s Law. But who was Murphy and why was he such a Gloomy Gus?

In the late 1940s, Air Force engineer Edward A. Murphy worked at Edwards Air Force Base near Los Angeles. In 1949, the dawn of the jet age, it was Captain Murphy’s job to figure out how much rapid deceleration the human body could tolerate. The findings would help inform future plane design.

Murphy went about this task as best he could. He instructed his assistant to mount 16 different accelerometers to a human subject. The idea was to use the instruments to measure how well the human body could tolerate the force of gravity. A rocket sled, with the human aboard, would take off super fast and then come to a quick stop.

Unfortunately, the assistant installed the accelerometers the wrong way. Upon hearing this, Murphy was said to have proclaimed, “If there is anyway to do it wrong, he’ll find it.” The comment was picked up by the press. And before long, “Murphy’s Law” became an idiom meaning “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.”

And that’s the story of Murphy’s Law. It’s a law that everybody, at one time or another, follows. Whether they want to or not.

Thanks for reading,

Mike

We know who made the first telephone call in history. Likewise, we know all about the very first email. But what about that other form of communication — the one you pray your parents never learn to do — the text message?

Like just about everything on the Web, opinions vary when it comes to who came up with the text message. A leading contender is Raina Fortini. Fortini didn’t create the infrastructure or the hardware, but she may have been the first person to realize its potential.

Before cell phones, there were beepers. Fortini realized that if you held the beeper upside down, the numbers sometimes resembled words. According to New Scientist, “Edward Lantz, a former NASA employee,” says Fortini sent a text from New York City to Florida in 1989. Unfortunately, nobody is sure about the message’s contents.

The first commercial text message, again according to New Scientist, came a few years later in December, 1992. “‘Merry Christmas, texted Neil Papworth of Sema Group to Richard Jarvis of Vodafone on 3 December 1992. Papworth actually sent the message from a PC. Riku Pihkonen of Nokia claims to be the first to have physically “texted” from a phone, in 1993.”

I doubt Fortini or Papworth knew that they were starting a revolution in communication. There were 6.1 trillion text messages sent in 2010. I’d bet my right texting thumb that the number is even higher now.

Thanks for reading,

Mike

Guess what? I just had a kid. Well, my wife did, but I was there to feed her ice chips and tell her she’s beautiful, so, of course, that makes me an expert. But there’s one thing I still don’t understand: hiccups. Why does my daughter hiccup so much? And does she mind?

An article from Parents.com explains that hiccups are totally normal, and are, in fact, a good thing for babies. “Hiccups are caused when the diaphragm, the respiratory muscle at the base of the chest, gets irritated and spasms. Since a baby’s stomach and torso are small, it doesn’t take much to fill his tummy to the brim and push it up into the diaphragm.” If you hear your baby hiccup, it means he or she is eating well.

A change in room temperature may cause hiccups, too. According to Baby Center, if the baby gets cold, hiccups may be more common.

So why don’t kids freak out during hiccup sessions? According to Baby Zone, “hiccups seem to bother parents more than they bother the baby.” Unlike 99% of the stuff that can make babies fussy, hiccups apparently don’t bother them. Go figure. The exception is if the hiccups affect the baby’s ability to feed. If that’s the case, consult a doctor.

So that’s the story with baby hiccups. Small stomach + hungry baby = big hiccups (and, eventually, a dirty diaper).

Thanks for reading,

Mike

Few, if any, toys are as iconic as Barbie. While I never had one (I was more of a G.I. Joe kid, myself), the doll remains incredibly popular with kids and collectors. Still, many might not know the doll’s history.

Like Cher and Rihanna, Barbie needs no last name. However, she does have one. In fact, she’s got a whole biography. Her full name is Barbie Millicent Roberts and she was born on March 9, 1959.

Though she attends high school in Willows, Wisconsin, the blonde teen has held dozens of jobs over the years. She’s been a dentist, a jet pilot, an aerobics instructor, and a McDonald’s cashier.

Barbie isn’t an only child. Far from it. The plastic icon has six younger siblings, including twins Tutti and Todd. As near as I can tell, her boyfriend through it all is still Ken Carson. When you hear somebody with bland good looks described as a “Ken doll,” this is who they’re referring to.

In 2006, Barbie was named one of the most influential people who never lived. She came in 43rd, ahead of Atticus Finch, Batman, and my very own G.I. Joe.

While Barbie does have many fans, not everybody believes she’s a good influence. Last year, a woman created a life-size version of the doll in an effort to show that Barbie may inspire some children to develop body-image issues and eating disorders.

Thanks for reading,

Mike

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.”

Thanks for reading,

Mike

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