The Straight Dope

In your recent column regarding stigmata [February 19] you failed to mention one very important fact. In most cases the stigmata displayed by “stigmatists” manifest on the palms and the feet. It’s well known that the Romans discovered very early that nails through the hands and feet (especially the hands)…

The Straight Dope

In your column on the weight of a cloud versus that of a 747 [March 12], you state: “Now of course, it’s true that weight isn’t the same as mass and that a cloud put on a scale wouldn’t weigh anything.” Yuck! The weight of an object equals its mass…

The Straight Dope

Can eating foods with poppy seeds (i.e., bagels, muffins, et cetera) really cause someone to fail a routine corporate drug test? I’ve heard the answer is yes, but I am a skeptic. Aren’t drug tests specialized? Are they really testing for opium, which I understand to be the only drug…

The Straight Dope

People who can’t see are blind, and people who can’t hear are deaf. What is the term for people who lack the sense of smell or taste? Smell-less? Tasteless? — Bob, Dallas, Texas No question, these would be handy terms to have in these trying times. Luckily the medical dictionaries…

The Straight Dope

I recently acquired a satellite dish and have become a shameless junkie of old Westerns. In half of these B movies of plains life, it seems there is a woman giving birth. After they give her the obligatory wooden spoon to bite on, someone always yells to boil some water…

The Straight Dope

While busily working one afternoon (i.e., staring at the clouds), my coworker told me that a cloud can weigh as much as or more than a 747. I think she’s nuts and that this is impossible. Please set her straight. –JMG, via the Internet Hope you didn’t put serious money…

The Straight Dope

It took Columbus two months in three leaky ships to reach the Americas and open up a new chapter in exploration. The Russians were less than twenty miles from Alaska (two miles if you count a few islands) and never managed to “discover” America before 1492. Why not? — Chris…

The Straight Dope

My wife and I are at somewhat of an impasse. We debate (intermittently) whether or not braking a manual-shift car should be done solely with the brakes (meanwhile putting the car into neutral) or by gradually slowing down the car by downshifting — that is, shifting from fifth to fourth…

The Straight Dope

Is there anything to the phenomenon known as “stigmata,” i.e., when people inexplicably develop the same type of bloody wounds inflicted on Jesus on the cross? — R.T., New York, New York Maybe I shouldn’t tell you this, but I have these scaly patches on my palm that have been…

The Straight Dope

My question to you is whether individuals have any right to the airspace above the land they own. Can I, for example, declare the space above my house a no-fly zone (I know that it would be virtually impossible to enforce this), or can this only be done on a…

The Straight Dope

Why are people bothering with getting colds anymore? The site www.coldcure.com has been around for a couple of years now, and the product for stopping common cold symptoms is available in many places (Wal-Mart for one). Could you check out that site and apply your skill either (1) to debunk…

The Straight Dope

I just read your column about Circus Peanuts (January 1). In all seriousness, I happen to like Circus Peanuts. I really do. I’m not kidding. Just thought you should know that there is someone in the world who actually likes the things. — Brian, via the Internet I wholeheartedly (and…

The Straight Dope

Being a Native American, I was wondering why people and cartoon characters yell “Geronimo!” when they parachute from an airplane. To the best of my knowledge Geronimo never skydived. — Michael, southeast Texas As it turns out, this isn’t far from the real answer. The custom of yelling “Geronimo!” is…

The Straight Dope

I’m one very disgruntled and estranged member of the Catholic Church — so disgruntled, in fact, that I really don’t want to be counted as a member. How can I get excommunicated? I assume it’s not as simple as writing a letter (though this probably only means the Church is…

The Straight Dope

I have received a question pertaining to the Beatles from a friend. I have no idea what the answer is. What do all four Beatles hold on the cover of the Beatles ’65 album? — Lee, via AOL I have the album right here. You forget how big these things…

The Straight Dope

I have never understood why Circus Peanuts (orange, gooey, diabetic-coma-inducing, peanut-shaped candy) are still available. I have never known anyone who actually likes this candy, and I have asked everyone I know. So, Cecil, can you give me a little information about who invented this candy treat, why they are…

The Straight Dope

One hundred years ago, on September 21, 1897, a little girl with great doubts asked the editor of the New York Sun for the answer to a question that had been bothering her. There was no “Straight Dope” then, so she had to settle. The Sun came up with an…

The Straight Dope

In your book The Straight Dope, you wrote about a possible link between aluminum and Alzheimer’s disease. You waffled on the question of whether aluminum actually causes Alzheimer’s and gave your stock response that research was continuing (equivalent to Ann Landers kissing off a question by telling the writer to…

The Straight Dope

Why isn’t fire alive? It breathes oxygen. It eats wood. It reproduces (sort of). What defines life? How do we know it’s not an advanced non-carbon-based life form? On that same note, why isn’t a rock alive? If a rock grew at a nanometer every million years, how could we…

The Straight Dope

Is it possible to have eyes of two different colors? I scoffed when I heard this at work recently, but others said it happens all the time, and one guy even claimed to know a woman who was “bi” (colored, that is). Are these people imagining things, or is it…

The Straight Dope

Cecil, you are my hero. My ultimate goal in life is to be the polymath you are. My question concerns a mythical “chicken gun” used for testing jet engines. I have heard tales of store-bought poultry being shot out of a gun at 500 mph into a running jet engine…

The Straight Dope

There’s been a lot of talk in the last few years about subliminal advertising, sexual words and phalli in Disney movies, et cetera. Another rumor I keep hearing is that a part of the male anatomy was unintentionally pictured in the underwear section of a 1975 Sears catalog. Let me…