A local church runs a program where each week they create dozens of essential bags for the homeless. They fill a gallon sized plastic bag with a water bottle, granola bars, soap, chap stick, a bus ticket and anything else they can get donated. They call the program “Hands of Hope.”

I was given a Hands of Hope bag from my mom and later that day, on my drive home, I saw a homeless man standing at an intersection. I was excited to give him the goodie bag so I waved him over as I waited for the light to turn green. He approached with smile that blossomed into a huge toothless-grin when he saw the bag.

My excitement dropped a little when I saw his dental records, or lack there of. One reason I was eager to pass out the Hand of Hope bag was because it contained a large bag of beef jerky. I just knew the jerky would be a hit.

But seeing my new friend’s smile made me think twice about the jerky. Could he eat it? Would he see the offer as an insult? Those were just a few of the questions that rapid fired into my brain in the split second it took for him to get to the car.

Despite my apprehension, I was stuck He had already seen the bag and the light was still red. I couldn’t pull back my offer and I couldn’t speed away.

I was all set to apologize, but before I could even say a word, he exclaimed,

Beef jerky! Awesome, I love this stuff. And since I don’t have any teeth it will last longer!”

We were looking at the same thing, but seeing something completely different. I saw a lack of teeth and thought the beef jerky would be a burden. He saw the jerky as a gift that would last a week.

The man thanked me, gave me a fist pound and immediately started rifling though the bag to see what other treasured it contained. Seconds ago, I had approached the street corner thinking I was going to leave on mark on this man’s life. Little did I know, I would be the one with the lasting memory.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

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Great One-Liners From Benjamin Franklin

– Fish and visitors smell in three days.

– Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.

– Well done is better than well said.

– Little strokes fell great oaks.

– Some are weather-wise, some are otherwise

– Keep your humour light, fun, open to participation.

– We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.

– Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones.

– He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

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Photo credit: Wikipedia

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Only one problem. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver beat me to it. They ran a hilarious segment called Daylight Saving Time – How Is This Still A Thing? Rather than try to match them with in a contest of wit and humor (a battle I will certainly lose), I figured I would just post their video since it answers nearly all my Wonder Why Wednesday questions.

Enjoy…

Photo credit: Pixabay

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Instead, four brand new arc lamps were hung on poles near the courthouse. As soon as the courthouse stuck eight o’clock, Charles Brush switched on the lamps and the city was covered in a dazzling glow the likes of which had never been seen.

Brush had an amazing idea that brought electric light to this sleepy little town.

What happens when a cartoon character comes up with an amazing idea? A little light bulb pops up over his or her head.

Light bulbs are associated with good ideas. They indicate brilliant brainstorms and inspired inklings.

But oddly enough, early versions of electric light weren’t so highly regarded.

People did not know how to react to this new form of light. Picture a teenager who has slept in and is going to be late for school. His mother pulls back the curtains and lights up the room. The teenager fears the light.

Brush’s invention was greeted with apprehension. Women used umbrellas to shield themselves from the “rays of this mysterious sun.”

Upon Brush’s arc lamps in France, author Robert Louis Stevenson wrote:

A new sort of urban star now shines out nightly, horrible, unearthly, obnoxious to the human eye; a lamp for a nightmare! Such a light as this should shine only on murders and public crime, or along the corridors of lunatic asylums, a horror to heighten horror. To look at it only once is to fall in love with gas.”

Stevenson and others were frightened by the switch from gas to electric light. To someone in 2015, this idea sounds crazy.

Brush’s invention created a light source rivaled only by the sun. But it also created change. Major change. And like any change, it took some time for people to open up to it.

If electric light took time to gain widespread appeal, we shouldn’t feel bad when our ideas are slow to catch on.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

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I like the idea of gum being a training tool used to practice chewing. Gum often gets a bad rap. And there is one big reason why…

We’ve all heard it. If we swallow our gum it will stay in our stomach for seven years. That is a famous legend, but it is true? Let’s find out in today’s Wonder Why Wednesday.

Wonder Why Wednesday: The Truth About Gum

Before we tackle the tale of the digestion of gum, let’s take a look at gum’s history. According to HowStuffWorks.com, researchers found lumps of tar with human teeth marks in them dating back 7,000 years. Who knew gum was so old? Modern gum appears to have been popularized in the 1860s by Mexican general Antonio Lopez de Santa and Thomas Adams.

Now on to the reason we are all here. Does gum really stick around in our guts for seven years?

No.

According to the magazine Scientific American, Pediatric gastroenterologist David Milov says, “with complete certainty” that gum does not stay in you for seven years.

Once it is swallowed, gum is subjected to the same treatment as any other food. After it is recognized as useless by our digestive system, gum travels the same path as all other waste products.

So why does gum always associated with this urban legend? It is unclear. Even as evidence is reveals to conflict this folklore, the rumor won’t go away.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

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My brother: Here’s a question for you. Why does lint always show up in your belly button?

Me: Good question.

My brother: And why is it always gray?

Me: That’s another good question.

My brother: You should add that to your Wonder Why Wednesdays, or whatever it is called.

Me: I’ll look into it.

My brother: Cool. Want some? (showing me the lint he picked out of his belly button)

Me: No thanks.

Despite his gross offer, I decided to take him up on his suggestion to look into where belly button lint comes from. I didn’t expect to learn anything, but when I Googled the phrase “Where Does Belly Button Lint Come From?” a ton or results showed up.

I guess my brother and I weren’t the first to have this conversation.

Wonder Why Wednesday (or whatever it is called): Where Does Belly Button Lint Come From?

Turns out that not only are other people asking this question, but so are entire continents. Australia’s ABC ran a nationwide survey to find out about Australia’s belly button lint. Among the things they hoped to discover were the following:

• What is belly button lint?
• Do guys get it more than women?
• Do you get more as you get older?
• Does hair play a factor?
• Who holds the record for largest collection of belly button lint?

This video has the answers…

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8%!

That’s right, 92% of people failed to achieve their goal. In school, 92% is an A. That means that Americans got an A in failing to lose weight last year. Not sure how you can get an A in failure, but we are America and darned if we didn’t figure out a way.

So how do we get better results in 2015?

An article from Fulfillment Daily says the key might be what’s called the spacing effect.

“The spacing effect can be best understood in the context of learning,” says Justin Mertes-Mistretta. “Information that you learn over a spaced out period of time has proven to be much easier remembered than information that is crammed without intervals of time.”

It is better to study for a test one hour a day for 5 days than it is to try and pull a 5-hour all-nighter the day before the test.

In much the same way, spacing out our goals over time make them look much more realistic. It seems more plausible to lose 5 pounds a month than it does to lose 60 pounds in a year.

I love this quote in the article from Dr. Kari A. Hortos:

There is a reason the saying is ‘an apple a day keeps a doctor away,’ not ‘365 apples a year keeps the doctor away.’”

That makes perfect sense to me. I can handle one apple a day. 365 apples on the other hand (even spread out over an entire year) sounds much more daunting.

So remember, when you are attacking your goals this year, break them up into little chunks. You don’t need to go out and load up on 365 apples.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

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First, most of the posts I make on this site are text based, so I like to spice things up from time to time and throw in a fun video. Second, some answers to my Wonder Why Wednesday questions are so complex that my simple brain can’t come up with a way to explain them correctly without plagiarizing another person’s explanation.

Today’s answer definitely falls into that second category. It contains a lot more physics than I am capable of explaining. But wait a minute before you close out of this page. The video is really cool and does a great job of explaining the physics in a simple and fun way (plus the host has an awesome accent).

Wonder Why Wednesday: Why Do Boomerangs Come Back?

Have you ever thrown a boomerang and had it come back to you? If so, have you ever wondered how that happens? Here is a breakdown of how this all works…

Photo credit: Wikipedia

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I found this to be a very interesting description of internal conflict. The classic pop culture and movie trope usually features an angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other. Both personas typically look like the character enduring the conflict, and they spend most of the time bickering with one another.

Here’s and example from the movie, The Emperor’s New Groove:

As common as this portrayal can be, it doesn’t always paint an accurate picture of someone dealing with internal conflict. As Mulaney brings up, sometimes the two voices look nothing alike. Sometimes, the thing sitting on your shoulder is a giant gorilla.

When we picture the two contrasting voices in our head as similar images, we assume we can fend off the bad one. But as Mulaney explained, quieting the voice that looks like a gorilla is a much different story. And this is why it can be easy to fall victim to the gorilla’s side. Especially when the sole purpose of the gorilla is to kill the other half.

During their conversation on the podcast, Mulaney and Maron also discussed how within the concept of two voices, one is typically the authentic us.

In explanation of how he has been able to remain sober for years, Mulaney said “I think the authentic me is the nice guy who is very aware of the gorilla and goes, ‘stay over there gorilla, no way, not today’.”

That is a very honest explanation that many of us can relate to. Even if we have not had struggles with substance abuse, we may have dealt with the shoulder gorilla in the form of laziness, dishonesty or envy.

It is important to remember that we do not necessarily have to defeat the gorilla. We do not even have to try to ignore it. We just have to be aware that it is there and have to courage to tell it to stay away, no way, not today.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

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