House of The Week 5/20/22
MUNDANE MYSTERIES: Why Are Fire Trucks Red?
A fire truck blazing down the road can create a ton of anxiety for anyone, as well as a ton of questions: “Where’s the fire?”, “Is it someone or somewhere I know,” and my main question, “why are fire trucks red?” Seriously, why ARE fire trucks red? Sure, red is an eye-catching color, but let’s be honest, most people notice fire trucks because of the flashing lights & sirens (since you hear it way before you see it). So why are fire trucks red?
One of the theories is that, back before automobiles became prevalent, fire trucks weren’t actually trucks but horse-drawn wagons, repurposed from farms to include firefighting equipment. The undercarriages of those wagons were painted red, since the color was an inexpensive & hid dirt & damage. So, when firehouses eventually adapted from wagons to trucks, they kept the same paint scheme, too.
That’s one proposition, but a more believable theory revolves around Henry Ford. In the early 1900s, Ford Model Ts (which were the most popular automobiles at that time) were only available in one single color: black. So, when fire trucks came about, red was picked as their color to make them stand out from all the black passenger cars.
Studies have been done to find the most effective color schemes for emergency vehicles, but those studies have had mixed results. For instance, lime yellow was found to be more noticeable than red. But lime yellow isn’t of much use to motorists if they don’t associate the color with danger or urgency. Whatever the true original reason for fire trucks being red in the first place, they remain red to this day simply because it’d be too difficult for our human brains to unlearn the association of “red means emergency”.
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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Wake Up Crew highlights: May 18, 2022
MUNDANE MYSTERIES: Fast-Talking Auctioneers
If you’ve ever been to an auction, or have ever seen one in a movie or on TV, then you know auctioneers – those fast-talking speakers who guide the whole sale process – really seem like they have somewhere else to be. They’re always in a hurry, right? They always talk blazingly fast. Why is that? It may seem nifty, but it is necessary?
As it turns out, they don’t technically have to talk that fast. But they do want to talk that fast, because it offers the best chance at getting the best prices from their best customers. Speaking so quickly, tends to generate a sense of urgency in the buyers.
That lightning-fast auctioneer patter is called the “chant”, and while it may seem fast it really isn’t as fast as you might initially think. If you were to disassemble the auctioneer’s words & remove all the filler, you’d basically end up with linear strands of numbers or prices.
But it’s that filler material, however, that builds the sense of urgency within the auction: things like “can I get”, “do I hear,” “come on,” “I see”, etc. Auctioneers will usually string those fillers together to create an almost musical drone. And the cadence of that drone hypnotizes bidders into a trance of sorts, which leaves them itching to engage with the auctioneer when he makes the call to raise each bid.
Not just anybody can be an auctioneer. A lot of states actually require auctioneers to be licensed, which can take a great deal of time & practice. And why would anyone want to put in that much time & patience to become a fast-talking auctioneer? Well, for many, it’s an investment. Because many times, they can contractually get anywhere from 10% to 20% of each sale price for the items sold.
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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Wake Up Crew Highlights: May 18, 2022
Meet Gray Lady & Black Betty – our Jay Day and the Day Home Team PET OF THE WEEK
MUNDANE MYSTERIES: Why Your Nose Runs When You Cry
This weekend, my wife & I watched a movie that had a pretty sad-yet-heartwarming ending. And it wasn’t just the tears that were flowing at that ending, but also…well…nasal fluids, too. (Sorry, not trying to be gross. But it happens to all of us.) They seem to be two different systems, right? But are they really? Why does your nose run whenever you cry?
Scientists really don’t know the evolutionary reason why we cry, but they do know a bit about how our tears happen. Basically, emotional stimulation makes our brains transmit messages to our tear ducts that tell them to turn on the tears. But the thing is, those messages go to our eyes, not our noses. So, why does crying seem to trigger mucus production, as well?
Well, actually, it doesn’t really. When you cry, some of your tears leave your eyes & roll down your cheeks. But there are other tears that end up flowing through your tear ducts & down into your nasal cavity, where they join forces with your mucus to create the whole weepy waterworks situation.
But this isn’t always the case when you might have a runny nose. Like whenever you eat spicy foods, for instance; the mucous membranes in your nasal cavity do actually make more of their stuff as a means of trying to flush out the “hot” compounds before they can mess up your respiratory system. Cold air also makes your mucous membranes ramp up their output, too, as their way of warming up & dampening the cold, dry air before it makes it to your lungs.
But when it comes to crying your eyes out at a sad movie or a sad song, everything you’re wiping away with those tissues is actually just from one big sad family.
Got a Mundane Mystery you’d like solved? Send a message via my Twitter (@AndyWebbRadio), or email [email protected].
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