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MUNDANE MYSTERIES: Roadside Domes

When you’re on a road trip, some things are easy to overlook: those black tubes stretched across the road, those colored balls on power lines. But what about those giant domes on the sides of highways? Ever noticed those? Most folks just pass right on by those storage domes each day, never knowing why they’re there or what they’re for. But, in case you’ve ever been curious (as I was), they’re actually used to store mounds of road salt!

Cities & states have to have a plenty of salt on-hand to keep roads de-iced & drivable in winter. It’s more cost-effective to store the salt in bulk in those domes on the side of the highway, since road salt doesn’t go bad as long as it’s kept dry. Just how much salt can they contain? Well, a typical dome with a 150-foot-diameter & 12-foot-tall concrete walls can store up to 19,000 tons of salt. So, whenever roads get covered in snow and/or ice & need to be cleared, workers have easy access to more salt than they’ll likely need.

So, that explains the size of the domes, but why do they have that unusual shape? Well, the reason it’s a dome rather than a four-walled building is because the structure of the dome maximizes the available space inside. There’s an architectural term, “clear span”, that describes the unobstructed area between supports. That’s what a dome provides: a large, tall indoor space without support beams, so salt trucks can freely move in & out. Plus, they’re also made of specific materials which serve a specific purpose: the domes are made of concrete, wood beams, and roof shingles, instead of metal, since salt is corrosive.

The way de-icing with salt works is that salt lowers the freezing point of water, which is normally 32°F, to between 20°F and 2°F. And no matter how old it gets, salt never loses its ability to melt ice. So, until roads start being made with built-in salt, salt storage domes are probably going to be a fixture on your car trips for a long time to come.

Got a Mundane Mystery you’d like solved? Send me a message via social media (@AndyWebbRadioVoice), or shoot me an email at [email protected].

BROUGHT TO YOU BY: Airtron Heating & Air Conditioning

MUNDANE MYSTERIES: Why Women’s Clothes Have Fake Pockets

Our attire can sometimes create optical illusions. For example, there are clip-on ties, faux button holes, and the idea that black is more slimming. But, none is as odd as…the fake pocket. You know how it is: you try on a dress or pair of jeans & try to dig your hand into the pocket before realizing there’s nothing really there where pocket looks like it’s supposed to be. Men’s suits have this issue, as well, but it’s most prevalent in women’s clothing. Why is this a thing?

The reason for fake pockets is simple, at least in the eyes of the fashion industry: when certain clothes are intended to create a specific kind of cut or form, pockets can alter their shape, whether on the rack, on your body, or both. By nixing pockets, the garment is more likely to retain the look that the designer intended.

If you go back to the 17th century, dress pockets were actually just removable bags that women would shift from one ensemble to the next (which were great for pickpockets, since they could easily just run off with an entire pocket). Then, as garment-making became more streamlined, slim pockets started to be sewn into the garments, which made things more aesthetically pleasing to designers (and more difficult for pickpockets). Following the French Revolution in the 1790s, however, slim skirts were all the rage, so pockets went by the wayside. And, without their pocket bags, women upgraded to handbags instead.

Designers have felt that certain clothing cuts are disrupted by pockets, and they’ve long hated the idea of people shoving their hands into pockets & bunching up the fabric. So, to discourage pocket-related abnormalities, they just created pockets that looked practical but really aren’t. You also have to remember: a dress on a runway doesn’t need pockets. But then, they still don’t end up getting added in the time between the catwalk & the clothing rack.

So why have pockets at all? Well, for a lot of types of clothing, especially jeans, people have gotten used to seeing pockets as part of the design. Think about it: wouldn’t it be odd to see a pair of Levi’s without hand-sized pockets on the hips?

Got a Mundane Mystery you’d like solved? Send me a message via social media (@AndyWebbRadioVoice), or shoot me an email at [email protected].

BROUGHT TO YOU BY: Airtron Heating & Air Conditioning

MUNDANE MYSTERIES: Why Customers Are Sometimes Called “Guests”

For the longest time, businesses called their customers “customers”. But, more & more business owners have begun referring to their customers as “guests”. It’s super-polite and sort of odd. But how did that get started, and why? Well, we have Disney to thank (or blame, depending on how you look at it).

Back in 1955, when the original Disneyland opened in Anaheim, CA, employees working at “The Happiest Place on Earth” were told to refer to attendees at park as “guests”, as part of the Disney commitment to going the extra mile in creating an uber-friendly fantasy environment.

And, because of their scale & reputation, a lot of what Disney does, others imitate. Many other business executives actually took lessons on Disney’s methodology at the Disney Institute back in the 1980s, hoping to emulate Disney’s success. Then, in 2015, a spokesperson for Target admitted to The New York Times that Target employees had begun saying “guests” when referring to customers 22 years earlier, in 1993, as a direct result of following Disney’s policy.

But, while it may sound warm & inviting, calling customers “guests” isn’t actually linguistically correct. “Guest” actually means one who’s being entertained at the abode of another while paying for services rendered. So, it’s more appropriate to use “guest” in the context of visiting a hotel or restaurant, as opposed to a retail store. “Customer”, on the other hand, is a noun that, by definition, is someone visiting a place to purchase goods. So, when it comes to stores, “customer” is much more appropriate than “guest”.

But, Disney did feature a song titled “Be Our Guest” in their 1991 animated film Beauty and the Beast, so I suppose they get a pass. Besides, it’s all about semantics & psychology in the hopes of getting you to spend your hard-earned money.

Got a Mundane Mystery you’d like solved? Send me a message via social media (@AndyWebbRadioVoice), or shoot me an email at [email protected].

BROUGHT TO YOU BY: Airtron Heating & Air Conditioning

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