Yahoo! Answers

Hey Guys,

Today’s cars can go zero to sixty in the time it takes you to read this sentence. But that wasn’t always the case. Back when the first cars were manufactured, the top speeds were, by today’s standards, comically slow. One has to wonder when the first speeding ticket was issued. And just how fast was this bandit of the blacktop going?

I thought there might be some difficulty in tracking the answer down, but the pursuit was a lot like beating a Yugo in a drag race. According to Ohio History Central, the dubious distinction belongs to one Harry Myers. In 1904, Mr. Myers was given the very first speeding ticket for going a whopping 12 miles per hour on West Third Street in Dayton, Ohio.

But hold the phone. That might not be totally accurate. A blog from Open Salon explains that the first speeding violation may have actually occurred five years earlier. According to the blog, New York City cab driver Jacob German was arrested in Manhattan for going 12 miles per hour in May, 1899.

The blog goes on to note that back in 1899, the police didn’t actually give out paper tickets. So, in a way, Mr. Myers may have still earned the first actual ticket. However Mr. German, who drove for the Electric Vehicle Company, scored the first violation. As Planet Buzo points out, it seems appropriate that “our country’s first arrest for reckless driving should be leveled at a New York cabbie.”

Thanks for reading,

Mike

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Hey Guys,

The other day I was watching a LA Lakers game on TV when something struck me. Why in the world are they called the Lakers when there is barely so much as a puddle in Los Angeles?

The answer, as many of you know, is that the team wasn’t always from Southern California. Originally, they hailed from Minnesota, self-described land of 10,000 lakes. The team kept its old nickname rather than change it. But, the Lakers aren’t the only team to have a nickname that makes no sense.

Consider the Utah Jazz. Salt Lake City is a great place, full of beauty and wonderful people, but, near as I can tell, it’s not particularly known for its thriving jazz scene. So, what’s the deal here? Like the Lakers, the Jazz moved to Utah from somewhere else — namely, New Orleans, where jazz is an art, religion, business, you get the idea.

And there are more. The Grizzlies, another NBA team, used to be in rugged Vancouver, Canada. Now they play in Memphis, where Elvis sightings are far more common than fearsome bears. And what about the Colts of the NFL? Is Indianapolis really a horse racing town? Nope, but Baltimore is. The Colts used to play in Baltimore (home of the famous Preakness Stakes) before moving to the Hoosier State.

One of the most popular teams in baseball, the Los Angeles Dodgers, has a similar story. Originally, the Dodgers hailed from Brooklyn, New York. According to the official site for club, the team’s nickname was originally “Trolley Dodger,” “due to the complex maze of trolley cars that weaved its way through the borough of Brooklyn.” The name stuck even when the team moved to California.

Some team nicknames match perfectly with the their cities. The San Francisco 49ers come to mind. Ditto with the New York Yankees, Dallas Cowboys, Phoenix Suns, and Pittsburgh Steelers. Got any other thoughts on team nicknames that either make perfect sense or no sense at all? Leave a comment below.

Thanks for reading,

Mike

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Hey Guys,

Think of the biggest, hugest, most insane number you can imagine. Got it? OK, now add one to it. The amazing thing about numbers is that they never stop. There’s always a bigger number.

For years I assumed that “zillion” was actually a real number, something that came along when you hit one-thousand trillion. How wrong I was. Apologies if you find this to be old news, but zillion doesn’t exist. It’s just a made-up word. Of course there are bigger numbers after trillion, but what do we call them?

I came across a personal blog from Jim Loy, who helpfully explains the order of big numbers. Here’s how it goes: hundreds, thousands, millions, billions, trillions, quadrillion, quintillion, sextillion, octillion, nonillion, decillion, and so on and so forth. By the time you get to centillion, you’re talking about a number with 303 zeros after it.

But getting back to made up words. This is one of my favorite pastimes, and after looking around the Web I see that I’m not alone. For anyone who enjoys coining nonsensical words and phrases and then feigning shock when people have no idea what you’re talking about, check out this list of ‘words’ from fans of author Jasper Fforde. Some personal favorites: Gruntled (the opposite of being disgruntled), puffalope (a padded envelope), and sploop (the flat, rounded corner that’s created when one drops a bar of soap in the shower).

Got some favorite made up words of your own? Sound off in the comments.

Thanks for reading,

Mike

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Hey Guys,

I recently finished reading “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd” by Agatha Christie. Among the many suspects under investigation for the titular crime is, of course, the butler. And as I plowed through the book, I got to wondering about a mystery of my own — how did the phrase, “The butler did it” get started?

According to the blog The Straight Dope, most experts give the credit to author Mary Roberts Rinhart. Her mysteries, which often starred ahead-of-her time heroine Hilda Adams, were among the most popular of their day. And in one of those books, “The Door,” which she published in 1930, the butler does indeed commit the crime. (Sorry for the spoiler.)

But, while the cliché quickly entered the lexicon and remains to this day, it’s worth noting that few stories actually involve the butler committing the crime. Again, according to the Straight Dope, part of that can be attributed to very influential 1928 essay entitled “Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories” by S.S. Van Dine.

Dine’s eleventh rule reads like so: “A servant must not be chosen by the author as the culprit. This is begging a noble question. It is a too easy solution. The culprit must be a decidedly worth-while person–one that wouldn’t ordinarily come under suspicion.” While the sentiment is a rather prejudiced against working people, I do see his point. The reader wants the killer to be someone who will experience an epic fall when he or she is caught. That’s why, in old school (or “golden age”) detective novels, the murderer is often the wealthiest person in the room.

“The Murder of Roger Ackroyd” is often called Christie’s masterpiece (and I recommend it highly). What are some of your favorite detective novels? Do you like your detectives to be elegant and all-knowing like Sherlock Holmes or do you want to see them a little more hard boiled like Sam Spade? What makes for a satisfying mystery?

Thanks for reading,

Mike

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Hey Guys,

Commuting is the pits. The carpool lane (aka the HOV lane) can make it a bit less painful, but what if you don’t have another body in the car? Do you actually need one? A lot of folks on Yahoo! Answers wonder if pregnant women can legally ride in the carpool lane. The answer? Sure, but there has to be another person in the car, too.

It’s not hard to imagine how this might come up. Pregnant women “eating for two” is a common expression. Some might say they’re also driving with a little passenger. But the law says otherwise. According to the Virginia Department of Transportation, a pregnant woman counts as one person. It’s a different story once the little miracle is born. “Babies of any age… count as a person” in the world of high occupancy vehicles.

Rules of the road vary state to state, but, near as I can tell, this one is in effect across the board. California has a similar law, as do Washington and Arizona.

One woman tried to test this law back in 2006 and lost the case. Candace Wilkinson of Phoenix claimed that her fetus should meet the second person requirement for carpools. The judge didn’t agree and the woman was forced to pay the fine.

Bottom line — the carpool lane is nice, but don’t use it unless you have another person in the car with you. Buns in the oven do not count.

Thanks for reading,

Mike

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