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MUNDANE MYSTERIES: Why Do You Have To Wear Special Shoes To Bowl?
Have you ever wondered why you have to wear special bowling shoes? You know how it is…you get to the bowling alley, wanting to roll a few frames, and then you’re required to swap out your own kicks for a pair of stiff, not quite comfortable (and usually less-than-pleasantly-fragrant) footwear that ultimately make you feel twice as socially awkward as you normally would. Why do you have to wear those special shoes if you want to bowl? Why not your brand new Nike sneakers, instead? What’s the big deal?
There’s a long-running urban legend that bowling shoes enable you to keep traction on the slick bowling lane floors. The problem is that, as with most urban legends, it’s not true. Bowling shoes actually do the opposite: they have slick soles that help you glide across the lane’s surface, giving your body a wider range of motion in the process.
So why wear bowling shoes rather than your own regular shoes? Well, you see…when you wear treaded sneakers & attempt to swing the ball while you’re set in one place, that actually adds more stress to your joints (ankles, knees, wrist, etc.). You really don’t want to stop like that while bowling. Instead, you actually want to slide, and that’s what bowling shoes do (better than regular shoes). They’re not as slippery as some might think, though. Because, while bowling shoes are mostly made out of leather, they do have heels comprised of rubber so that you’ll have some braking power. So, yeah…sliding is big part of wearing bowling shoes, but not as much as it would be with, say, ice skates (or just wearing your socks).
Safety is the main reason you’re required to lace up those beautifully bland bowling shoes. But protection is also high on the list: the bowling shoe system helps protect bowling alley floors in the long run. If everyone were to wear their regular shoes, those polished & varnished bowling floors would, fairly easity & quickly, end up scuffed & dirty. And if/when that happened, everyone’s bowling balls would regularly veer off-course because of the buildup of dirt, as well as small chewing gum pieces & other nastiness that would accumulate. Only allowing folks to wear dedicated bowling shoes while on the lanes within the alley, itself, helps protect the floors from not only grimy buildup, but also from moisture because of rain or snow. Think of it as an anti-contamination system…kind of like a “plastic bubble” situation, only less see-through (and, strangely, less fashionable as well).
So, the next time you have to slip on a pair of bowling shoes, you’ll at least know why & be thankful for what those shoes are & do (or at least not be too perturbed at having to wear them). As a matter of fact, think of it like this: bowling shoes are the great equalizer at bowling alleys. Because we ALL look & feel goofy wearing them. It’s a communal experience, and one that we’re all lucky to have.
Got a Mundane Mystery you’d like solved? Send me a message via Twitter (@AndyWebbRadio), or shoot me an email at [email protected].
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MUNDANE MYSTERIES: Why Produce Is Usually At The Front Of Grocery Stores
If you’re anything like me, then you’ve run into a grocery store for just one item, but ultimately walked out with armfuls of stuff you hadn’t intended on picking up. Grocery stores are deviously clever at tricking consumers into dropping more money than planned. Is that why the produce section is almost always near the front of nearly every grocery store?
Grocery store layouts are highly planned & seriously strategic. There’s a psychological reason that stores place the produce section at or near the front. Because when you go into a store, the store knows it’ll be hard for you to not take the opportunity to pick up their vibrantly colorful array of fruits & veggies, U mean, c’mon…they’re practically glowing in color & glistening with water to make them appear so deliciously fresh (though those spray showers do make the veggies weigh more, which also makes them cost more.) The produce section tends to be dramatically lit, to, so that everything looks better in the store than it ever could once you get home with it. Almost every grocery store knows that, if they can get your mouth watering, you’re more likely to buy more stuff (which is why the bakery is also usually pretty close to the door, too).
Grocery stores also have their ways of making you cover as much ground as possible, too, so that you’ll have a better chance to pick up more items than you might’ve gone in for. One way is their placement of the dairy section in the back of the store; with the milk, eggs, butter, or other dairy staples back there, you have to walk past lots of less necessary (but hard to resist) items along your way.
Got a Mundane Mystery you’d like solved? Send me a message via Twitter (@AndyWebbRadio), or shoot me an email at [email protected].
MUNDANE MYSTERIES: Why Truckers Say “10-4”
Some truck driver slang just makes sense. Like “Bambi”, which means a deer is in the vicinity. “Go-go Juice” means diesel fuel. “Seat covers” are actually pants. But what about the phrase “10-4”. You may know that 10-4 basically means “okay” or “I got your message”, but why? Where did that come from?
10-4 came from what are called “ten-codes”, a group of digital short-codes developed in the late 1930s by Illinois State Police. After the recent invention of 2-way car radios, ten-codes were an easy & efficient way for police officers to transmit messages to & from each other & the police station. Then in 1940, APCO (the Association of Police Communications Officers) published a list of about 100 ten-codes as a way to standardize usage across state lines. 10-1 stood for “Receiving poorly,” 10-2 meant “Receiving well,” 10-3 was for “Stop transmitting,” while 10-4 meant “Acknowledgement”.
So, why did they tack a 10 onto the front of each number? It was a actually a troubleshooting tactic. Radio motor-generators weren’t high-tech enough at that time to jump into action as soon as someone started transmitting, so the person on the receiving end often didn’t hear the beginning of the message. But if the beginning of every message was the same meaningless 10, it didn’t matter.
Thanks to Broderick Crawford saying “10-4” on the 1950s police drama Highway Patrol, it gained traction with the general public. Then, when truck drivers started using via 2-way radios, they co-opted the ten-codes. Truckers’ radios were usually citizens band radios, or CB radios, which took off after the 1973 oil crisis, when 55-mph speed limits were instituted across the nation & truckers needed a way to warn each other about speed traps. Shortly thereafter, CB radio code talk took on a life of its own, thanks to C.W. McCall’s 1975 hit song “Convoy” and, later, the movie “Smokey & The Bandit”.
CB radios may not be as big of a thing nowadays, but 10-4 has never gone out of style as the go-to way to say “I Gotcha” (without actually saying “I Gotcha”).
Got a Mundane Mystery you’d like solved? Send me a message via Twitter (@AndyWebbRadio), or shoot me an email at [email protected].
