If you’ve ever been stuck at home in the midst of a water outage, then you’ve most likely had to find the biggest pot, bowl, bucket, or other container that you could get your hands on in order to answer nature’s call as normally as possible. Did you notice, though, that pouring a large quantity…
There’s no denying that the color combo of black & yellow make is eye-catching. I mean, just think of bees, caution tape, Stanley tools…lots more. But the black stripes on yellow school buses aren’t just for aesthetics. Those black stripes that run along the sides & back of the school bus are actually metal “rub…
The term “lukewarm” is used commonly to mean “somewhere between hot & cold”. But, there are certain times that call for a more specific place on the thermometer, such as when you’re baking bread, bathing a baby, or having breakfast with Goldilocks. But, how warm is lukewarm really? It depends, really. It was in the…
You probably hear it all day the day before & likely see it happen on the day, itself: if you don’t wear green on St. Patrick’s day, you get pinched by your friends & family. But, have you ever actually questioned the whole St. Patrick’s Day pinching rule? Is it an ancient cultural practice passed…
It doesn’t matter if you prefer whole milk, 2%, or skim, when it comes to the plastic containers that your milk comes in all share one thing in common: they’ve got an inverted circle built into one side of the jug. If you’re a milk drinker, you’ve probably seen this circle…but do you know the…
“Brownie points” have become synonymous with currying favor with those in authority like teachers or bosses. But, where exactly did “brownie points” come from? And, what happens when you “earn” them? One of the most popular explanations is that they originated with the Brownies, a subsect of the Girl Scouts. Often too young to be…
With another round of stimulus checks going out soon, you may be thinking about hitting the road for a safe, socially-distanced vacation. But, where will you stay: a hotel, or a motel? And, what’s the difference between the two? It comes down to the etymology of the word motel, since it’s a actually 2 words…
With it being so warm now, compared to how cold it was just last week, I got to thinking about some other places that experience those temp shifts much more regularly & frequently: deserts. During the day, scorching heat can be torturous to humans. But then, after dark, the problem is reversed & you’d need…
Have you ever noticed those tiny black dots around the edge of your car’s windshield? They’re easy to miss, but they actually serve some important purposes. Firstly, there’s a black strip that wraps around your windshield, which is called a “frit” or a “frit band”. It’s basically ceramic paint that’s been cooked into the glass…
Y’know the old “Which Came First: The Chicken Or The Egg” quandary? You could ask a very similar question about “Orange”: is the fruit named for its color, or is the color named for the fruit? Well, if you’ve ever pondered this question, you can rest assured that there is a definitive answer (unlike the…