Ever Wonder Why?: Here Are the Answers! - Brossura

Douglas B. Smith is the author of Ever Wonder Why? and its sequel, More Ever Wonder Why?

Preface
 
Ever wonder why books have prefaces?
 
The word preface comes from a Latin word praefatio, which means “to speak before.” The purpose of a preface, then, is to speak to the readers before they read the main part of the book and tell them what the book is about.
 
This is a book about WHY: why so many barns are red, why Southern men are nicknamed “Bubba,” why you never see cashew nuts in their shells, why breaking a mirror is seven years bad luck, why a square boxing enclosure is called a “ring,” and why you see those crescent moons carved into outhouses. If questions like these make you wonder, you will like this book. It answers about three hundred such questions, with the emphasis in every case being on why something is the way it is. Not who, what, when, where, or how, but why. “Why?” is the first question we learn to ask as children and the one our parents have the hardest time answering. This is because “Why?” is the most difficult question to research. Books and other publications answer lots of questions about their subjects, but for some reason not usually questions about why. A book on barns may not tell you why so many of them are red, a book on cats might not reveal why their eyes glow in the dark, and a book on marriage customs might not say why the bride stands on the groom’s left. Because of this, ‘why’ questions usually require a lot of digging in strange places. While it is true that some answers can be found rather quickly in obvious places like encyclopedias or other standard reference sources, more often they require research in obscure books, old periodicals, government documents, business publications, trade journals, and frequently consultation with one or more experts. Finding an acceptable answer can take days, months, or longer. For instance, the author has spent over two years trying to find an answer to the question of why yawns are contagious. So far, no luck.
 
On the other hand, there are times when too many answers can be found. That is, research turns up conflicting explanations from two or more seemingly unimpeachable sources. When this happens, the explanation about which there seems to be the greatest degree of consensus is the one used in this book. In the absence of such a consensus, the explanation that seems most plausible is the one used.
 
About half of the questions in this book were submitted by other people; the other half are questions that have intrigued—and sometimes plagued—the author during the past thirty years.
 
It has been the author’s experience that almost everyone has a deep curiosity about the underlying reasons for the things they see about them. It was with this in mind that this book was written.
 
—when a lady spurns a gentleman, she is said to be “giving him the cold shoulder”?
Despite current usage, the phrase does not have a romantic origin. In fact, the shoulder in “cold shoulder” is actually a shoulder of mutton!
 
In the early nineteenth century, when the phrase was first recorded by Sir Walter Scott, it was customary for a hostess to serve hot meat to visitors who were welcomed and cold meat to those who had overstayed their welcome. Since the cold meat given to the unwanted guest was usually a shoulder of mutton, the hostess was said to be “giving him the cold shoulder”—of mutton, that is.
 
—he-men sailors of old often wore earrings?
In the days of the wooden sailing ship, there was no certainty that sailors setting out on a long voyage would ever see their homeland again. To prepare for the worst, sailors took to wearing gold earrings so that if there was an accident and their bodies were found washed ashore on some foreign beach, the gold in the earrings would be used to pay for decent burials.
 
—red is the traditional color for barns?
Late in the 1700s, American farmers began painting their barns with homemade wood preservatives to protect them from the weather. In the northern states where winters are particularly harsh, the preservative found to offer the best protection was one made from lime, skim milk, and red iron oxide. When this mixture dried, it gave the barn a durable, plasticlike finish. Because of the iron oxide, it also gave the barn a bright red color. The use of this preservative became so widespread that by the early 1800s red had become the traditional color for barns.
 
—dimes, quarters, and half-dollars have notched edges, while pennies and nickels do not?
The U.S. Mint began putting notches on the edges of coins containing gold and silver to discourage holders of such coins from shaving off small quantities of the precious metals. Before coins were notched, shaving was a common practice, and at one point the problem was so bad that merchants refused to accept coins without first weighing them to determine their true value. Notching the coins corrected the problem since any attempt to shave a notched coin could be easily detected.
 
Dimes, quarters, and half-dollars are notched because they contain silver. There is no need to notch pennies and nickels since the metals they contain are not valuable enough to make shaving worth the effort.
 
—corned beef is called corned beef when it contains no corn?
The “corned” in corned beef has nothing to do with the vegetable corn. It means “preserved in salt.” The salt pellets originally used to preserve this type of beef were called salt “corns,” and beef preserved in this way was called corned beef.
 
—riders always mount their horses from the left?
The custom began centuries ago when men carried swords. Since most men are right-handed, the sword was usually carried on the left hip to make it more accessible to the right hand. With a long sword dangling from a rider’s left side, it was clearly easier for him to mount his horse by putting his left foot into the stirrup and then throwing his right leg across the horse’s back. This, of course, required that the horse be mounted from the left. Even after riders no longer carried swords, mounting from the left remained the custom.
 
—zero scores in tennis are called “love”?
In France, where tennis first became popular, a big, round zero on the tennis scoreboard looked like an egg and was, in fact, called an egg, which in French is l’oeuf. When tennis became popular in this country, Americans copied the French and also called the zero score l’oeuf. but pronounced it “love.”
 
—the symbol for a pawnshop is three golden balls?
The three golden balls were originally the symbol of the Medici family of Florence, who were the owners of many pawnshops in Italy during the Middle Ages.
 
According to legend, Averado de Medici, while serving under Charlemagne, once slew a giant warrior named Mugello on whose mace were three golden balls. To commemorate his victory, Averado adopted these bails as a device on the Medici family coat of arms. Later, the balls were displayed over the entrances of the de Medici pawnshops and eventually came to symbolize pawnshops in general.
 
—someone suspected of expressing an insincere emotion is said to be shedding crocodile tears?
This expression arises from the fact that crocodiles often appear to shed tears, but not for emotional reasons. When a crocodile takes a big bite of something, the food presses against the top of its mouth, causing a watery liquid to ooze from its eyes. These apparent tears aren’t, of course, genuine, and the crocodile is still the same dangerous reptile ready to attack anything that comes within its reach. Hence the expression.
 
—dogs sometimes turn around several times before they lie down for a nap?
Domestic dogs, being descendants of wild dogs, still retain some of the wild dog’s natural instincts. One of these instincts, it is believed, accounts for the way dogs often prepare for a nap.
 
Since wild dogs live in the forest or the brush, they often have had to trample down grass and weeds to make a comfortable place to lie down. They do this by walking around and around in a tight circle. It is speculated that remnants of this instinct may account for the domestic dog’s tendency to turn around a few times before it lies down for a nap.
 
—so many umbrellas are black?
When umbrellas first came into wide use during the 1700s, they were made of oil-soaked cotton cloth stretched over whalebone. The purpose of the oil was to make the cotton cloth waterproof, but it also gave the cloth a blackish color.
 
This type of umbrella was, in fact, very waterproof but not very durable. Soon, newer and better umbrellas were developed, and since the color black had come to be associated with effective waterproofing, most of the newer models were dyed black.
 
 
Excerpt From: Douglas B. Smith. “Ever Wonder Why?.” iBooks.