Over the past several weeks, well over half a billion eggs have been recalled due to salmonella worries. The “bad eggs” (pun not intended) were either “destroyed,” according to various news reports, or returned to the two big farms from which they came. But what happens to the eggs that these farm hens keep laying? Do those get tossed, too?

The answer might surprise you: According to the Washington Post, many of these eggs are sold to food businesses that can pasteurize them. Pasteurizing, in which the product is heated to a specific temperature, kills the salmonella. The recalled eggs will then be “used in liquid egg products or processed foods.”

The Wall Street Journal points out that there is something very important to keep in mind here. The eggs being sold for pasteurization are not (repeat: NOT) the same eggs that have been recalled. Those were apparently destroyed, though how, exactly, remains a bit of a mystery. The eggs being sold are fresh eggs, which may or may not contain salmonella. Regardless, pasteurization kills the bacteria.

So where do the eggs end up, specifically? HealthDay explains that they’ll go in “food products ranging from salad dressings to cookie dough to cake mixes.” Consumers shouldn’t fear — “those products will be perfectly safe for consumers to eat.”

That should ease some worries. Web searches on “egg recall” remain in Yahoo!’s top 100 overall terms, and over the past week, interest in “list of recalled egg brands” has soared over 9,000%, and “salmonella symptoms” are also big in Search.

For a complete list of the recalled brands and labels, check here.

Thanks for reading,

Mike

And now, this week’s question…

You wake up. You’re feeling nauseous and you have the biggest headache. Maybe you had too much to drink at your best friend’s wedding, or perhaps you shouldn’t have stayed out singing “Don’t Stop Believing” at the karaoke bar last night. What’s your secret to curing a hangover?

Think you have a better answer? We definitely know our community has some great answers. You’ve heard their answers, now we want to hear from you! Give us a shout and tell us what you think. Just click the question below to submit your response.

Question: What’s the best way to cure a hangover?

Episode 3 Winner

Congrats to Sara for Episode 3’s Best Answer. Here’s her answer:

If you’ve ever had roommates, then more than likely you’ve experienced roommates from hell once or twice in your life. The problem with getting rid of roommates like that is that they have keys to your home, they know where you live, and they know what you do. The last thing you want to do with a roommate from hell is to make things worse than they already are. So what is a person to do? You have to get rid them but make them think that they are leaving because THEY WANT to leave. That is the trick. Now, it does take a bit of finesse and maybe a little bit of acting ability to carry this off.

The smart and funny things you can do:

1- Trash the room when your roommate’s not around. Then leave and wait for your roommate to come back. When he/she does, walk in and act surprised. Say, “Uh-oh, it looks like THEY were here again.

2- Eat lots of Lucky Charms. Pick out all the yellow moons and stockpile them in the closet. If your roommate inquires, explain that visitors are coming, but you can’t say anything more, or you’ll have to face the consequences again.

3- Keep a tarantula in a jar for three days. Then give away the tarantula. If your roommate asks, say, “Oh, he’s around here somewhere.”

4- When you walk into the room, look at your roommate in disgust and yell, “Oh, you’re here!” Walk away yelling and cursing.

5- Watch “Psycho” every day for a month. Then act excited every time your roommate goes to take a shower.

6- Have “nightmares” every night and scream loudly, remembering to sometimes throw your roommate’s name into the mix. You can even try getting out of bed to do some “sleep walking.” Never acknowledge this if your roommate asks about it.

7- If you and your roommate actually share a room, tell him or her that you must sleep with the lights on. Possible excuses include night terrors, the buggy-man, acne, you used to live in Alaska, you hate the environment, you sleep with your eyes open, etc.

8 -Become needy of your roommate. Always ask where he or she is going when your roommate leaves the room, even if it is to go to the bathroom. You can also try calling continuously and asking him or her, “Well, where are you now?” or “Are you almost home?”

The legal ways:

1- Evaluate who signed the lease. If you are the only one who signed it, this will make it much easier than if you both co- signed it. If you are both co-tenants, you can still file a complaint to your landlord – for example, stating that your roommate does not pay the rent on time!

2- Sit your roommate down and talk to him directly about the issues you have been having with him. Give him at least 30 days notice to move out and find his own place.

3- File an eviction notice to your local courthouse if your roommate refuses to move. Or else enlist your landlord to help you evict this roommate.

Get Featured

You can be the next winner and get 200 EXTRA POINTS and get recognized on our Answers Blog.  Heck, if you have a webcam and we like your video, we may even feature a video of you on our Answers Blog! We’re not the only ones that can make videos. Simply upload your video here. In submitting your video keep in mind your obligations under the Terms of Service and Community Guidelines. Also, you must be 18 in order to submit a video.

Consider the license plate. Some plates are customized, some are just a random string of letters and numbers, and some (in California, anyway) have handprints and hearts. And, according to legend, every last one of them was made by a convict in America’s lovely prison system. Is that really true?

I can’t say definitively if every plate is made by a guest of the government, but a number of states do have prisoners manufacture license plates. In the state of Michigan, for example, prisoners do create each and every plate at the Parr Highway Correctional Facility. Overall, about 130 inmates produce over 8,000 plates every day. You can take a photo tour and see the process here.

Other states that employ inmates for the production of license plates include Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Nevada, and Colorado.

Indiana uses prisoners to make plates, too. But the Hoosier State ran into a bit of trouble when the prisoners were put on “lock down.” No plates could be made, and there was a bit of shortage. Hey, that’s life in the big house. Oh, and it’s not like this gig pays a lot. New York prisoners earn 42 cents per hour.

Do you guys have any favorite customized license plates that you’ve seen on the road? I don’t really have a favorite, but I do remember one that was so boring I never forgot it. On a red car, the license plate read: “RED CAR.” So creative.

Thanks for reading,

Mike

Changing time to choose a Best Answer

Based on your feedback to be able to resolve a question quicker, we have now reduced the wait time to choose a best answer from 4 hours to 1 hour.  If you now receive multiple responses within an hour you can select one of those as your Best Answer, or choose to put the question to vote at this earlier stage.

The full lifecycle of a question won’t change – questions will still be open for 4 days and up to maximum of 8 days if you extend the expiration.  This change gives you the option to resolve earlier or put to vote earlier.   If you take no action to resolve or extend the question, the question will automatically go to vote for the Best Answer.

Optional Preview screen when answering questions

Many of you have commented that to you’d prefer an answering experience without having to see your response on the Preview page first.  We are now able to offer this…

If you are signed-in with your Answers account and have answered at least one question before then when submitting your answer you can choose to Submit your response immediately without going to the Preview page first.  We’ve kept the Preview page too, so you can still see how your response will look before publishing it.

What makes Yahoo! Answers unique is the avid involvement of the community it is YOU that provides the content so continue to ask, answer and vote!

-Yahoo! Answers Team

As a kid, much to the joy of my parents, I loved okra, the vegetable that’s high in fiber, calcium, and iron: fuzzy on the outside and mucilaginous on the inside!

My introduction to okra was when I visited the exotic city of Ahvaz, Iran, in a stew called “koresh bamieh.” I next saw it in a less-exotic location — North Carolina — where I dined in a cafeteria called K+W, which served Southern-style fried okra. I remember the manager telling me “you gotta try those, honey; everyone around here loves them things. You ain’t a true Southerner if you don’t love Okra.” It actually took me a year or two to realize that okra and bamieh were the same vegetable!

I’ve started to tag all of my favorite okra recipes on Delicious, so follow me if you want to learn more.  In addition, here are some interesting facts about okra that I’ve already discovered on Yahoo! Answers, thanks to you guys.

Finally my own koresh bamieh recipe, using eggplant instead of the traditional lamb. Bon appétit or, as they say in Iran, “noosh-e jaan,”

Ingredients:

• 2 large red onions, thinly sliced
• 4 medium sized eggplants
• 10 small yellow tomatoes
• 2 large red tomatoes
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 3 or 4 garlic cloves, minced
• Salt to taste
• Pinch of paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 cup tamarind sauce (recipe below)
• 1 pound fresh whole baby okra, washed and trimmed
• Water

Preparation:

• In a large pan, take about half (2 to 3 tablespoons) of the olive oil and sauté onions on medium heat till golden. Add turmeric and garlic, then sauté for another 5 to 7 minutes.
• Place the eggplant in the pan and brown on all sides. Add salt and pepper.
• Stir in the tamarind sauce and then cook for another 10 minutes.
• In a separate skillet, heat the rest of the olive oil and sauté the okra lightly for 2 to 3 minutes.
• Add the okra to the pan and cook for an additional 10 minutes.
• Stir in paprika or water, as needed.
• Serve hot with rice, yogurt, herbs, and bread.

Tamarind Sauce:

Place eight ounces of tamarind paste, with pods, in a bowl. Cover with hot water for an hour to soften. Using a spoon, a fork, or your fingers, separate the pods from the pulp to get the juice out. Add more hot water if needed. Discard the seeds and strings. Pour the tamarind liquid in a jar and add a cube of vegetable stock. Store in a cool, dry place.

Thanks for reading!

Spread over four weeks, with each week catering to one particular theme, this initiative will showcase the best holiday destinations and the most awesome travel stories that come from you! So start working on that travelogue of yours and include details like places to stay, things to see, best shopping deals and the like. And don’t forget to tell us why it is among your favorite holiday destinations! We’ll be awarding 50 bonus points for the best story each week.

Not only that, we invite you to share your favorite photograph of the vacation on one of these Flickr groups:

Landscape group -  http://www.flickr.com/groups/100naturallandscapes/

Photo by Ian BC North

Cityscape group -  http://www.flickr.com/groups/26328425@N00/

Photo by aufmkolk (hafoto.de)

Seascape group -  http://www.flickr.com/groups/seascape/

Photo by S John Davey

Skyscape group - http://www.flickr.com/groups/98509261@N00/

Photo by Cobalt123

Once you post your picture there, remember to leave us a comment with the Flickr link on the blog, or add the link in your answer. At the end of four weeks, your story and photograph could be featured on our blog.

And here are 5 steps to ensure your Flickr photo makes it to the contest:

1. Log in to http://www.flickr.com/
2. Sign up for Flickr with your Yahoo! id if you don’t have a Flickr account already
3. Join the Groups (whose links are mentioned above)
4. Upload your Travel photos there
5. Copy the link of your photo and use that in your answer!

This week’s question is about dreamy landscapes. Meadows full of flowers and green grass, a winding river, a roaring waterfall, awe-inspiring mountains, or endless deserts – what landscape inspired you the most and made for an unforgettable holiday? What was your most picturesque and idyllic holiday in the countryside?

While reading your comments from a recent column I did on why we say “God bless you” after somebody sneezes, I came across another interesting question. Does the heart really stop during a sneeze?

Good news — your heart does not stop, not even for a moment, when you sneeze. Baby just keeps on ticking. An article from the Library of Congress explains that a sneeze does cause the pressure in a person’s chest to change. This “also changes your blood flow, which may change the rhythm of your heartbeat.” This can give the person the sensation that his or her heart is “skipping a beat.” Indeed there may be a delay from beat to beat, but that’s not the same as having your heart stop. So, sneeze all you want. Nothing to fear.

The LOC mentions a few other interesting sneeze-related facts at the end of their article. For example, did you know that “sneezes can travel at a speed of 100 miles per hour”? All the more reason to cover your mouth. And, ever wonder why people don’t sneeze when they’re sleeping? The reason has to do with nerve endings. The ones “involved in nerve reflex are also resting.”

It’s impossible to write about this topic without mentioning explaining whether it’s really impossible to keep your eyes open during a sneeze. Near as I can tell this is actually true. Try all you want, you can’t keep your eyelids up when you sneeze. I wrote a column on this in 2005, and found that, “the sneeze impulse affects a variety of body parts, including the abdomen, chest, neck, and face. During a sneeze, the impulses that travel through your face cause your eyelids to blink. This response is entirely automatic. There’s nothing you can do about it.” (First time I’ve quoted myself — feels a little weird.)

Oh, and by the way, even if you held your eyelids in place and then sneezed, your eyes still wouldn’t fly out of your head. You know, just in case you were worried.

Thanks for reading,

Mike

Some say that the President has the world’s toughest job. I think the honor should go to anyone who works in customer service. Imagine how many times these brave men and women hear the following from a ticked-off client: “But I’m the customer! And the customer is always right!”

Never mind that the well-worn phrase is usually false. What I’d like to know is who coined it? I did some searching and found that the expression has an interesting back story. According to phrases.org.uk, the customer mantra likely originated from one of two men: Marshall Field or Harry Gordon Selfidge.

Most sources I found seemed to think Mr. Field was more likely the creator (Selfridge was an employee of his). Legend has it that Field came up with it as a way to distinguish his store from the competition. Over the years the phrase has been misused and misunderstood. Phrases.org.uk points out that Field never intended it be taken literally. I’m talking to you, lady who is trying to return her sweat-stained dress.

And if the Field name sounds familiar, it should. For a long time, Marshall Field’s department stores were among the biggest, grandest retail spaces in the United States. The brand was acquired by Macy’s several years ago, though some are still protesting the sale.

What do you guys think about the customer being right? Is it always true or is there a limit? Have you seen people try to “abuse the system”?

Thanks for reading,

Mike

By now you’ve had a chance to get to know me — yes, the woman who loves Belgian chocolate, ponders about gender studies, lovingly calls the Delicious community “geeks,” and joins all kinds of twisted Yahoo! Groups. But I’d like to share something even more personal here — and ask your opinion on what to do.

Every morning, I wake up with a smile and sigh, because I could really use another hour of sleep, but my daughter’s “cooing” is just too adorable to ignore. Our family has a pretty regular routine down:

• The baby wakes us up
• My husband and I argue about whose turn it is to get up, even though we both know it will be me
• I breastfeed and then bring the adorable bundle of joy to her father so they can have their bonding moment as well, which is — you guessed it — getting her diaper changed. (Who said life isn’t fair?)

We try to have breakfast as a family, but that usually collides with some phone calls with our European offices, my daughter insisting that she can eat by herself and throwing rice cereal all over our brand new sofa (thank God for IKEA), and my husband remembering he forgot to iron his shirt while texting one of his customers on his BlackBerry.

Usually a moment of calm and peace reappears when our nanny enters our apartment, but this time she is late, and when she finally arrives, she has some news to share: “I am going back to school full time, and this will be my last week.”

We are absolutely thrilled for her, but where are we going to find a new nanny on such short notice? As I drive to work and try to recall all the places I posted an ad last time, I wonder whether it’s time to finally consider placing our daughter in daycare so she can be in a more social environment. She is only 9 months old and truly enjoys the personal attention she gets, but nannies are expensive and hard to find.

Luckily for me, you guys already had a conversation about this on Yahoo! Answers.

That said, I figured you wouldn’t mind dropping me a few comments on the topic. Ask Mike has all the answers, so I figured you wouldn’t be too bothered with me asking a question.

A friend of mine woke up the other morning to a most unpleasant surprise. Her apartment had been invaded by bed bugs.

Despite its cutesy sounding name, the bed bug is one of the vilest creatures around. It is also one of the most resilient. My friend wanted to know: How does one get rid of the pests without losing her sanity?

The good folks at Harvard suggest that before you start throwing away all your furniture, you’ll want to make sure that the “bed bugs” are indeed bed bugs. In order to do that, you’ll have to capture one, and have it examined by an expert. If the expert says, “Yep, that there’s a bed bug, buddy boy” then here’s what’s next.

Conventional wisdom says you’ll have to ditch your carpet, couch, bed, etc. Or, in extreme cases, move. However, there are many exterminators who will treat an infested home. Some services attempt to freeze the bugs. Others bombard them with chemicals. If you don’t believe exterminators will be successful, you can always purge yourself of anything that you think might be infected.

Obviously, this can be an expensive proposition. One doesn’t want to throw away items that aren’t infected. A popular way to tell if a piece of furniture has been taken over by bed bugs is to “sic the dogs on ‘em.” That’s right, there are specially trained canines that can sniff out bed bugs and (sorry for this) their feces. Near as I can tell, it’s a legit industry. Man’s best friend, indeed.

Bed bugs are particularly prevalent in hotels and other highly visited areas. When traveling away from home, some folks recommended that you not put your suitcase directly on the bed. Why? If there are bugs in the comforter, they’ll easily make the jump to your baggage and come home with you.

That’s not to say that you have to act like Howard Hughes when you travel. But, as is often the case, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Got any tips on dealing with bed bugs? Please leave a comment below.

Thanks for reading,

Mike