Does gravity push or pull you?

In response to last week’s question, “Does gravity push or pull you?”, my organizational behavior guru friend Marya declared, “Once in a while gravity pushes me...like when I wear heels, enjoy a bottle of Chardonnay, and try to walk the cracked sidewalks of Minneapolis. Makes a great story.” My marketing and mom-of-two friend Megan concluded, “I think both, that's why I constantly feel I'm living a game of tug of war!”

My pilot (and cycling) friend Ted responded, “Gravity will either push or pull you depending on whether your butt is pointed skyward or earthward!” My dad’s beach buddy Bob explained, “Gravity keeps my feet firmly on the ground but I wish it could relocate some "progressives" to Zimbabwee.”

My friend Richard observed, “When expressed in the form of weight, gravity mostly depresses you.” My neighbor Dick explained further, “The truth is more deceptive than you think. Actually the mass of your body is insignificant compared to the weight of the atmosphere pressing down on you. A true measure of your weight would involve how much atmosphere is pressing down on you (tall people would weigh more). Of course we should expect to weigh more when there is a "high pressure system" weighing us down than at time of "low pressure systems" in your area.”

My marketing friend Jeff warned “that gravity pulls you since it is called the gravity pull on the NASA show. The problem is that it begins to make you shorter after 60 years of exposure.”

My friend Royce echoed McCartney and Lennon, writing, “Only thing I know is that it has a hold on me.” And my writing and sailing friend, aware that gravity can increase around rum and beer bottles, shared, “Answers.com sez gravity pushes. How Things Work sez gravity pulls. My son's T-Shirt sez gravity sucks.”

Please share your thoughts about "things that make you go 'Hmmm' ”:

    If all the world is a stage, where is the audience sitting?

Live well...laugh often and heartily…. have a good week and never regret anything that made you smile!

Hal

For another answer, give a listen to, you guessed it, Jimmy Buffet’s Gravity Storm: http://new.music.yahoo.com/jimmy-buffett/tracks/gravity-storm--487219. With this new knowledge, a have a safer, fun week.

After the roads are cleared of snow, where does the salt and sand go?

A ponderable with the humor in the vein of George Carlin, Steven Wright and Demetri Martin, in response to last week’s question, “After the roads are cleared of snow, where does the salt and sand go?”, my dad’s beach buddy Bob wrote, “It’s returned from whence it came...mother earth, though slightly relocated.” To this, my neighbor Al add clarified, “Silly! It's called the water shed. The salt and sand are washed into the storm drains. This eventually works it way down to the oceans. You don't really think that the oceans are naturally salty do you? Or that the sand on the beach came from wave action? Most of it comes from Buffalo!”

My Parrothead friend Sam corrected part of the prior answers, writing, “I think that the salt and sand (if it had even been brought near our neighborhood!) disappears down below in preparation for being recycled into a beach and the perfect margarita glass rim... can you tell that I am ready for warm weather??

My cycling friend Ted responded, “This one's easy having lived in Buffalo NY for 10 years. It all sticks to your car body and wheel wells, which has the curious effect of turning your car in to Swiss Cheese!! Just go to Buffalo and see for yourself!!” My college roomie John agreed, “It sticks to the car. Some of it falls off in the garage, when the snow melts. Otherwise, we wait for a 32+ degree day and go to the car wash so we can see out of the windows. Send some temps up here to melt our snow.

My friends Richard and Tracey added, “As best I can tell, the salt and sand mostly go into the finish on your vehicle.” My friend Kurt agreed with Richard concluding that it ends up at “Car wash!” My friend Addie saw this slightly differently, “It goes into all the grooves/treads of my tires, of course! I'll be spitting them out behind me as I peel off at a light for a long, long time to come!”

My cousin Wes suggested, “It goes to motivating your new car purchase as your car turns into a rust bucket.”

My friend Royce determined “it goes on vacation,” which may explain why my writing and sailing friend Rich provided possibly the definitive answer, “after being washed in to the storm drains, it goes to sand and salt heaven, otherwise known as the Caribbean.(*)”

Please share your thoughts about "things that make you go 'Hmmm' ”:

      Does gravity push or pull you?

Live well...laugh often and heartily…. have a good week and never regret anything that made you smile!

Why is the third hand on the (analog) watch called the second hand?

In response to last week’s question, “Why is the third hand on the (analog) watch called the second hand?”, my birthday bud Jon noted, “Being fastest, it could be considered the first hand, not the third. Which still leaves your question unanswered, but I will leave that to others.” My sailing friend Kurt agreed, “Seems to me it should be the first hand as it is moving the fastest. It is 60 times faster than the minute hand.”

My college roomie John countered, “it makes sense that the third hand be the second hand since we tell time in the order of hours, minutes and seconds. I guess I have nothing more to offer having already taken a few seconds on your time.”

My writing and sailing friend Rich recalled, “My Dad always called it "the proof that Timex takes a licking and keeps on ticking hand."

My friend Royce challenged, “because it's a race for time and the other guy came in second.”

My sailing friend Vaughn explained, “Its information may be considered third but it is not the third hand; it is the first hand. If you look at an analog watch’s hands you will see that the bottom or third hand is the hour hand; the minute hand in the middle. You just have to change your perspective. More importantly, seconds are often not considered but should be. Consider at 84 degrees zero minutes west longitude and Latitude 34 degrees 10 minutes, north the difference between 11 seconds and 10 seconds is the difference between a good or bad day. (http://lanier.sam.usace.army.mil/navigation/Grid_08.pdf)

And my video game designing friend Dov challenged, “why is the big hand called the 'minute' (pronounced my-noot) hand?”

My cycling friend Ted then provided a practical solution, “It's now completely irrelevant. This is 2011, we've been digital for 25 years. Quit living in the past!!

Please share your thoughts about "things that make you go 'Hmmm' ”:

      After the roads are cleared of snow, where does the salt and sand go? (Inquiring minds in ATL want to know because we don’t use salt or sand when it snows; we wait for the sunshine to clear the roads.)

Live well...laugh often and heartily…. have a good week and never regret anything that made you smile!

Hal

Some of the many wonderful and insightful thoughts shared by Martin Luther King, Jr, whose memory we honor today.

• Let no man pull you low enough to hate him.

• We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

• Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.

• In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

• Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

• The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

Info about A Day of Service, visit http://mlkday.gov/

How does mucus (from your nose) run at temperatures that most liquids freeze but not when the temperature is warm?

In response to last week’s question, “How does mucus (from your nose) run at temperatures that most liquids freeze but not when the temperature is warm?”, my dog rescue friend Kate summarized it simply, “My nose - like the rest of me - doesn't run anywhere.”

My dad’s beach buddy Bob determined, “It depends where your nose has been.” And my college roommie John observed, “My nose seems to run no matter what time of year (and my feet smell). Isn't that backwards? Go figure.”

My writing and sailing friend Rich observed, “The question made me ponder my mucous membrane and the world’s influence upon it. As with so much in life in which no answers were forthcoming, there are only more questions. Questions like why does my nose also run when I slice an onion? Why does it run in the spring when mother nature tosses the sperm of millions of trees into air and up my nose? It could be that all of these things irritate me. If that was the answer, then my nose should run every time my boss walks into the room.”

My friend Swany used the origin of the word for his answer. “We need to break down the word mucus. "Muc-" or Muck, if you will. Muck is defined as soft, moist barnyard manure or as slimy dirt or filth. This is just gross. Then what's left is "-us." Us, as in you and I, we. We all have muck in us. Mucus. So if you've ever been on a farm, warm manure expands and steams while cold manure contracts. Contracted mucus can run out of your nose easier than expanded mucus.” (Size does matter. It's been said in Hollywood circles that Karl Malden never had nasal congestion issues.)”

My cycling friend Ted found the cruder view. “This should be an easy one for someone with a real snotty attitude! But it’s snot!! It seems that Boogers are one of those curious substances found in nature that industry has been trying to replicate for years. Imagine putting boogers in your radiator--it would make anitfreeze positively obsolete. I don't think we should question why; we should just maximize our snotty potential!!

My engineering friend Richard found a scientific answer, “Because bodily fluids are at body temperature, not air temperature.” To this, my friend Kevin delved further, “It is purely a manner of salt content and viscosity. Given there is a percentage of salt within our mucus, it's freezing temperature is going to be lower than that of water (0°C). Also, the water content of the mucus will dictate the amount of flow which is available. In warmer temps, the body will try to hold onto water internally so that it can be more successful at cooling the body through sweat. Hence, not allowing the sinus system to use it for mucus. Of course, I could be completely wrong.”

In closing, my friend Royce “respectfully deferred to Kinky Friedman’s video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JRmKaGP9xc.”

Please share your thoughts about "things that make you go 'Hmmm' ”:

      Why is the third hand on the (analog) watch called the second hand?

Live well...laugh often and heartily…. have a good week and never regret anything that made you smile!

Should you make a New Year’s resolution about something you’ve already accomplished?

A ponderable with the humor in the vein of George Carlin, Steven Wright and Demetri Martin:

In response to last week’s question, “Should you make a New Year’s resolution about something you’ve already accomplished?”, my friend Richard observed, “It would probably be the first one any of us could actually keep!” To this, my friend Swany concurred, writing “I already did.”

My friend Royce wrote, “Of course! This way you won't feel guilty.” My cycling friend Ted was more emphatic when he wrote, “Hell yeah!! That way you can't break your promise!”

My temple friend Vivian offered support, writing, “Of course! Why not do something the easy way and celebrate it twice?” And my engineering friend Steve added, “Sounds like something a self esteem coach would suggest; no chance of failure.”

My birthday bud Jon added his support from Jerusalem, “That’s sort of how I do my year end evaluations for work -- try to make the goals for the year look like what I happened to have done.”

Then my friend Tracey wrote, “How can you resolve to do something that you have already accomplished? The only exception would be to resolve to continue doing something you set out to do.” To this, my dad’s beach buddy Bob recommended, “The new one should be that we are steadfast in maintaining our accomplishments.”

Please share your thoughts about "things that make you go 'Hmmm' ”:

         How does mucus (your nose) run at temperatures that most liquids freeze but not when the temperature is warm?

Live well...laugh often and heartily…. have a good week and never regret anything that made you smile!

Hal