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MUNDANE MYSTERIES: Why Christmas Lights End Up Tangled

Unless you’re very lucky, or very well-organized, your Christmas lights are likely all tangled up when you get them out of storage. One way or another, you’ll eventually end up on your hands & knees, fighting to untangle that seasonal snarl. And you’re not alone: a few years ago, even the British grocery chain Tesco hired temporary “Christmas light un-tanglers” for the holidays. But, why are Christmas lights so prone to tangling in the first place? And what can be done about it?

There are several issues at play here. First, cords in general are inherently prone to tangling (think headphone cords, telephone cords, etc.). And, according to science, the longer the cord, the higher the probability of knots forming. Plus, the more flexible the cord is, the more likely to tangle it will be, more so than a less flexible cord. While long cords get tangled more easily than short ones, a cord with a larger diameter will be less flexible & thus reduce the risk of knotting. So, in other words, the ratio of length to diameter is what really matters. That’s why a garden hose can end up tangled; even though it’s fairly stiff, it’s also very long compared to its diameter.

But there’s more. If a cord has a metal wire inside of it, as Christmas lights do, then it acquires a kind of natural curve, as the wire, which was previously wrapped around a cylindrical spool, tends to retain that shape. Christmas lights can be even harder to straighten than other wound materials because they often contain a pair of intertwined wires, which give them a stubborn, intrinsic twirl.

Then, there’s the additional problem of the lights. All those little projections of lights get in the way of each other, and make it super difficult to pull one strand through another. That means once you’re tangled, it makes it that much harder to de-tangle.

So, what can we do about this? Well, aside from manufacturers using different, better materials for both the cords & the lights, the only real “solution” is to coil the lights very carefully when putting them away, and to use some twist-ties to help keep them in place. Otherwise, you’ll just have to use the old-school method when faced with a hopelessly tangled mess of cord: find one of the free ends…and just work your way out from there. Eventually, you’ll work it out. You can do it!

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

MUNDANE MYSTERIES: Why Is Christmas On December 25th?

Each December, we throw a big shindig in celebration of the anniversary of Jesus’s birth. But, without a birth certificate or other official record of His actual birthdate, December 25th seems like it’s an arbitrary date for our Christmas traditions. So, how was it chosen as THE date?

The Bible doesn’t name a month, day, or even season, for Jesus’s birth, so historians rely on other clues to estimate when it occurred. In the Nativity story, shepherds tended their sheep, which some say is evidence Jesus was born in the Spring. Others say Israel’s mild winter temperatures allow sheep to graze even in December. According to Slate.com, it’s also possible for sheep set aside for religious sacrifices to have been given free rein, cold night or not.

The primary rationale comes from the story of Mary’s cousin Elizabeth, who was old & without any children. One day, her husband, Zacharias, a priest who was burning incense in the temple, was visited by the angel Gabriel who told him Elizabeth would have a son. The thought was that Zacharias was probably in the temple for Yom Kippur, which is believed to have always taken place on September 24th. Nine months after September 24th is June 24th, so they chose that as the birthdate of Elizabeth & Zacharias’s son, John the Baptist. Gabriel later visited Mary to say that she, too, would bear a son, and mentioned Elizabeth was in her 6th month of pregnancy. So, that means Jesus would’ve been conceived in late March, and born in late December, the night of December 24th, to be exact.

The first known record of December 25th celebrated as Jesus’s birthday was in the year 336. Because it was mentioned in a book containing other important religious dates related to Emperor Constantine, some assumed a celebration probably occurred on that day. So, 336 is said to be the 1st known “Christmas.”

Whether Christmas was celebrated on December 25th before 336 may forever be unknown, but we do know the custom quickly caught on (spending the holiday watching A Christmas Story marathon wouldn’t come until much later). By the end of the 4th century, bishops were holding Christmas Mass across Rome, with pagan festivals falling out of fashion.

Since the origins of Christmas are just as subject to interpretation as Jesus’s actual birthdate, we should all feel free to play Christmas music whenever we want!

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

MUNDANE MYSTERIES: What’s The Difference Between Ice Cream & Gelato?

With all the snow & ice on the ground around us, an odd-yet-interesting question popped into my weird brain: what exactly is the difference between the 2 frozen treats of ice cream & gelato?

One of the main differences: butterfat. Ice cream’s main ingredients involve milk, cream, sugar, and egg yolks, but the secret to making gelato is using much less cream & sometimes little or no egg yolk, which leads to a smaller percentage of butterfat in gelato. The FDA has mandated that ice cream cannot contain less than 10% milkfat (though it can go as high as 25%), while gelato sits in the 4-to-9% range.

The churning method for each is also different, which modifies each treat’s density. Ice cream is churned much faster, causing more air to get whipped into it. Ice cream’s higher butterfat content comes into play there, too: because of all th milkfat involved, ice cream’s mix absorbs the air more readily. Gelato, on the other hand, is churned much slower, so it absorbs less air, creating a denser dessert.

The serving style for the 2 treats aren’t the same, either. In order to get perfectly stacked scoops of ice cream on a cone, buckets of ice cream must be stored at around 0°F to maintain consistency, while the softer gelato is stored at around 10°F to 22°F. Ice cream can then be scooped into fairly uniform balls with a round ice cream scooper, while a spade or paddle is best for molding gelato into a mound in a cup.

You can’t really go wrong with either, both are delicious, but there is 1 more difference to keep in mind: taste. If you want a bolder flavor, you want gelato. The density of the cream & the lesser amount of butterfat means it doesn’t coat your taste buds, so gelato can seem to have more intensity to its flavors.

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

{Katie’s Baby Blog} Snow Day!…or not.

I was a little disappointed yesterday when I got home and tried to get Lily excited for the snow. I wanted Tim and I to take her outside to play, but she was totally against it!

She liked looking out the window at the snow, but when I asked her to go outside and play in it, I got, “No, I don’t want to go outside!!” I tried to get her snow pants on, and her favorite boots…nope. I even tried to coax her with M&M’s and stickers. She took them both and still shook her head “no” at me about going outside.

So once, I finally gave in and said “okay, fine we will stay in,” we decided to make Christmas cookies!

Now that…she loved doing 🙂 My cute little helper.

I can’t really blame her….I don’t loveeeee the snow either.

<3 Katie Ryan

 

 

{Katie’s Kitchen} Triple Chocolate Chip Christmas Cookies

Brought to you by Catoctin Mountain Orchard.

These are my favorite chocolate chip cookies! Chocolate chips, whit chocolate chips and M&M’s!

Pre-heat the oven to 375.

In a mixing bowl, add 12 TBSP of butter, 1 egg, 1 tbsp. water, 1 tsp. of vanilla extract, 2 cups flour, 1 cup brown sugar, 1 cup of chocolate and white chocolate chips mixed together, 1 cup sugar. Mix into dough.

Form 1 inch. balls with dough and place on a cookie sheet. Next, take red and green M&M’s and gently press into the top of the dough balls. Bake for 10 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes after they finish, before transferring to a cooling rack.

Super quick and easy with common essential ingredients…and I had some cute help to go along with it (see pictures below)!!

Ingredients:

-2 cups flour

-12 tbsp. butter

-1 egg

– 1 cup sugar

-1 cup brown sugar

-1 tsp. vanilla extract

-1 tbsp. water

-1 cup mix of chocolate and white chocolate chips

-1 cup Green and red M&M’s

 

 

 

MUNDANE MYSTERIES: The Difference Between MDs & DOs

Going through health care provider qualifications can be daunting, especially as their names often come with designations that don’t really make their title clear. Most of us know an MD is a “Doctor of Medicine”, but what is a DO?

MDs & DOs, or “Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine”, get pretty much the same medical school training & experience. But, MD’s are mostly “allopathic”, or remedy-based, while DOs take a more holistic, or whole body, approach.

Their educations are largely the same for both, with 4 years of medical school followed by a residency. In fact, DO & MD graduates train in the same residency programs. But, DOs get roughly 200 hours of additional hands-on training with the musculoskeletal system, called osteopathic manipulative treatment, which is the manipulation or massaging of tissues to alleviate pain.

For chronic back pain without an injury, an MD might prescribe pain relievers. Meanwhile, a DO might investigate other potential sources of the pain by viewing the entire overall patient, looking for other causes like stress or other conditions. DOs take environment, nutrition & overall health into consideration. DOs are also taught to emphasize overall wellness, a more systemic approach.

MDs & DOs may have marginally different educational curriculums, but an individual physician’s approach to practicing medicine isn’t always bound by that guidance. An MD can take a holistic approach, while a DO may not use osteopathic manipulative treatment as much, or at all.

Neither MD nor DO programs are any easier or harder to get into or graduate from than the other. And, after graduating, both have virtually the same abilities in practicing medicine, including writing prescriptions. So, selecting an MD or a DO for your personal care is mainly one of preference. In the end, it’s the doctor you choose, not their title, that matters.

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

MUNDANE MYSTERIES: How Do We “Smell” Snow?

Does snow have a scent? Your initial response might be “no”, since snow is only frozen water, which should be odorless. But, if you’ve ever predicted a big snowstorm based on a familiar tickle in your nose, then you understand the answer isn’t straightforward. So, what exactly happens when we “smell” snow?

The answer has less to do with specific odor molecules as it does with the climate. There’s a perfect storm of physical conditions needed to be able to smell snow. When temperatures near freezing right before it snows, it’s actually harder to detect scents in the air than it is during milder weather. Cold weather slows molecules in the air down. With less molecular activity, certain smells become less pungent. So, when “smelling snow”, you’re actually just smelling fewer other outdoor odors than what you’re used to.

But, if there was nothing else to it, a snowstorm would smell no different than a cold, dry day. The difference-maker? Humidity. The air is more humid than usual right before a snowstorm, which is what causes the flakes to fall: when the atmosphere hits its maximum amount of moisture, it dumps some of that wetness onto the ground in the form of rain, sleet, or, in our case, snow. That humidity also has the added effect of giving your sense of smell a quick boost. So, for many, the sensation of a warm, moist nose smelling certain elements in freezing weather ends up being linked with pending snowfall.

While all of that’s happening around you, there are systems at work inside your body that help to explain the unmistakable scent of snow. We sense the cold air we breath with our trigeminal nerve, which is the same nerve that interprets the sensations we get from tingly hot peppers or cool mint toothpaste, as well as other facial sensations that cause some folks to sneeze in sunlight. This is separate from our olfactory system, but we still lump that information with other more conventional scents like coffee or pine.

So, those elements (cold weather, humidity, and a stimulated trigeminal nerve) combine to create something that isn’t an odor, but a sensory experience we’ve come to associate with snow. Which is why, if you were to ask someone to describe the scent, they’d likely use words like “clean,” “fresh,” “cold”…all things that don’t have much of a scent at all.

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

Closings and Cancellations 12/17/20

Schools:

Frederick County MD Public Schools- all virtual day of instruction; in person small group instruction cancelled.

Loudon Co. Public Schools- Closed, admin offices closed. All distance learning cancelled.

Washington County Schools- Code V (virtual learning)

Jefferson County Public Schools- Staff and students will work remotely. Essential snow removal personnel, please report on site. High School and Middle school student’s follow a “B” day schedule today, and “A” day schedule tomorrow.

Berkley Co. Schools- operating on a remote learning schedule for all students, including Pre-K.

Shepherd University- Closed today.

Frederick Community College – Closed.

New Life Christian School- is on a modified schedule.

Berkeley County Schools- operating on a remote learning schedule for all students, including preK.
Green Castle/Antrim Schools – closed

Childcare:

Thurmont Child Care will open at 9:30A

Government:

The Federal Government is opening at 10.

Ft. Detrick will open at 10AM under delayed opening; Mission critical employees to report on time.

Frederick County Court House- opening at 10AM; Court house staff to open at 9:30AM.

Some Frederick county government operations will open at 10AM. employees who travel to work report at 10AM, telework employees report on time.

Washington County Circuit Court- opening at 10AM, circuit family law clinic canceled for today.

Clarke County General District Court Closed today.

Montgomery Circuit Court will open at 10Am, all cases will be heard at this time.

Montgomery county government on liberal leave. All offices and departments will open at 10AM.

Maryland State Government on liberal leave until noon.

Frederick County Public Libraries will make a decision about when and if to open its branches for curbside pickup.

Medical:

Meritus Medical Group- opening at 10AM; Drive through screening center and Meritus medical plaza opening at noon.

Cardiovascular specialist of Frederick opening at 10AM.

Traffic:

Trans-It- 10A, 10B, 20, 40, 50, 51, 65, and 80 connectors, Brunswick shuttles on a one hour delay.

The 20, 40, 50, 51 & 60 PEAKS, Route 85, East Frederick and North Frederick Shuttles will be operating on time.

Trans-It Plus – on time with the exception of weather related delay.

Businesses:

FCB Bank will open at 11AM

 

 

Helpful Websites You Probably Don’t Know About

Seven Helpful Websites You Probably Don’t Know About

Here is a list of helpful websites you might not know about:

FULL STORY:  If you’re sick of looking out your OWN window in lockdown, there’s a website called Window-Swap.com that lets you look out other people’s windows all over the world.  Here are six more helpful websites you might not know about . . .

1.  MyFridgeFood.com.  You enter a bunch of random ingredients that you have on hand, and it suggests recipes you can make.

2.  FutureMe.org.  It lets you send yourself an email one year in the future, or even farther out if you want.  Some people use it to help themselves stick to long-term goals.  And some people say writing to their future self is just therapeutic.

3.  RunPee.  This one’s an app that lets you search different movies, and tells you the best time to take a bathroom break so you don’t miss anything important.  For example, the first pee break in “Die Hard” is 45 minutes in when Reginald VelJohnson’s character is out buying Twinkies.

4.  GetHuman.com.  You type in the name of a company, and it gives you a customer service number that gets an actual human on the phone.  Or if you have to go through a robot, it tells you which buttons to push.

5.  JustWatch.com.  You enter a movie or show, and it tells you the streaming platforms that are currently playing it.

6.  WornOnTV.net.  If someone in a show is wearing an outfit you like, you can search for it and find out where it’s sold.

 

 

(BuzzFeed) (THE WISE BROTHERS) 

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