House of the Week 4/22/22
Wake Up Crew Highlights: April 21, 2022
MUNDANE MYSTERIES: What Do The Stars Next To Elevator Numbers Mean?
If you’ve ever ridden in an elevator, you may have noticed that some of the floor numbers have a star next to them. What do those stars mean? Is it where the “stars” (celebrities) stay? Maybe it’s the hotel manager’s favorite floor? No, there’s actually a much more practical use for those particular stars.
Whenever you see a star next to an elevator button taking you to a particular floor, or maybe you might see it next to the number where the door opens (which is called the ‘jamb’), what that star means is that that floor is the location with the closest or nearest exit to the outside the building. That’s why it isn’t always going to be on the same floor in every elevator: sometimes it’ll be on the first floor, sometimes it will be on ground floor, and then other times it may be some other floor. The basic reason the starred floor numbers exists is to tell you where the nearest outlet to the street outside the building is. It’s basically a safety & convenience thing.
So, the next time you’re riding in an elevator keep your eyes on the stars…they’re there for a reason that might actually save your life one day (or at least get you where you’re going more efficiently).
Got a Mundane Mystery you’d like solved? Send me a message via Twitter (@AndyWebbRadio), or shoot me an email at [email protected].
BROUGHT TO YOU BY: Berryville Graphics
Wake Up Crew Highlights: April 20 2022
MUNDANE MYSTERIES: What Are Bacon Bits Really Made Of?
One of the most delicious-yet-mysterious parts of any salad or baked potato is the bacon bits. You can use them anywhere you might otherwise use real cooked & crumbled-up bacon. But, while they may look & taste a lot like bacon, what are bacon bits really?
While ingredients in bacon bits vary from company to company, a lot of so-called “bacon” pieces don’t even contain actual meat. One of the most popular brands, McCormick’s “Bac’n Pieces”, are actually 100% vegan. Instead of cured pork, their bacon bits are made up of textured soy flour & canola oil, then mixed with caramel coloring, red 40 dye, maltodextrin, lactic acid, yeast extract, and flavor boosters disodium inosinate & disodium guanylate (to give them their meaty look & taste).
But there are several other bacon bits on store shelves that aren’t as vegan-friendly. Hormel’s “Real Bacon Pieces” are actually made from real cured & salted pork, along with other preservatives that are also used to cure the genuine strip bacon. Some other flavors and preservatives are also added, including smoke flavoring, sugar, and more. It’s pretty much the same story for Oscar Mayer’s “Real Bacon Bits”, which are another pork-based product.
All that stuff can be confusing to the average consumer, so here’s a rule of thumb to follow when you want bacon bits that aren’t meat (or even when you want ones that are). Containers that say “real bacon” actually contain real bacon; meanwhile, labels that spell bacon differently (such as McCormick’s “Bac’n Pieces”) are usually made with meat alternatives. Always double-check the ingredients, though, to make sure there aren’t any animal products involved (if that’s a sticking point for you). And, if artificial additives are your primary concern, go with nitrate-free bacon & then make your own crumbled bacon at home.
One thing to know for sure, though: the true ingredients of a product aren’t always evident from the products name. So always check the label.
Got a Mundane Mystery you’d like solved? Send me a message via Twitter (@AndyWebbRadio), or shoot me an email at [email protected].
BROUGHT TO YOU BY: Berryville Graphics
Wake Up Crew Highlights: April 19, 2022
Wake Up Crew Highlights: April 15, 2022
MUNDANE MYSTERIES: Why Are They Called “Piggy-Back Rides”?
Catching a ride on the back of a pig isn’t really a thing, right? And yet, people love horsing around & giving others what are called “piggyback rides”. But why are they called “piggyback rides”? I mean, people walk on two feet, right? Pigs, on the other hand, hoof it on four. What gives? Where did the term come from?
“Piggyback Rides” started with a different phrase in the 1500s that simply implied someone’s back being involved. It actually has nothing to do with pigs at all, as a matter of fact. That phrase was: “pick pack”. The word “pick”, at that time, could also mean “pitch”, so the theory goes that “pick pack” originally referred to a pack pitched on your back for easy hauling. Before long, people began using the phrase to describe carrying other things on your back (things like other people).
How “pick pack” eventually became “piggyback” isn’t totally clear, but we do know that, somewhere along the way, “pack” got changed to “back”, possibly because “pack” was so regularly misheard as “back” (especially since the back was a major facet of the whole “pick pack” process.
Experts also believe that “pick” became “pig” because the words are also so similar sounding. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest notated mention of “pig back” was in 1736. Pick pack, pick back, and then pig back gradually led to pick-a-pack, pick-a-back, and pig-a-back. And that last one seems to have gotten mistaken regularly enough for piggyback that, sometime in the mid-1800s, piggyback eventually became the most widely used form.