Do Penguins Have Knees? (4 page)

They conferred and answered as one. Even though the folks at the USPS don’t seem to know it, the labels are placed upside down to accommodate the postal carrier. All magazines are bound on the left-hand side. Our hypothetical postal carrier, being right-handed, naturally picks up a magazine by the spine with his or her right hand to read the address label—the magazine is thus automatically turned upside down. But the label is now “right side up” and easily read by the postal carrier. Nifty, huh?

Why
Are There Dents on the Top of Cowboy Hats?

Of course, not
all
cowboy hats have dents. How about country and western star George Strait’s? Or
Bonanza’s
Dan (“Hoss”) Blocker’s?

Yet the vast majority of cowboy hats do have dents, and no one we spoke to could give us any other explanation than that dents are there “for style.” Ralph Beatty, director of the Western/English Retailers of America, theorizes that early cowboy hats may have acquired dents by wear, and later were intentionally added.

As one, better-to-be-kept-anonymous, western hat marketer put it, “Let’s face it. Without the dent, you would look like a dork.”

We wonder if he would have said that to Dan Blocker’s face.

Why
Do Grocery Coupons State That They Have a “Cash value of 1/100 of 1¢”?

We receive a lot of questions not only about everyday life but about the questions we get asked. The most frequently asked question about questions: What is your most frequently asked question?

Imponderables run in cycles. After our first book,
Imponderables
, was published, “Why are buttons on men’s shirts and jackets arranged differently from those on women’s shirts?” was the most popular question. Then it was “Why is yawning contagious?” Then “Why can’t we tickle ourselves?” The all-time champion, though, is “Why do we park on driveways and drive on parkways?” We don’t know why people care passionately about this subject, but this is
the
Imponderable that just will not go away. We’ve discussed the answer in two books, and it is still our second most frequently asked Imponderable.

But the clear champion now is the Imponderable at hand. More than thirty readers have asked this Imponderable in the last two years, and the irony is that the question was one of the original Imponderables we hoped to answer in our first book.

We have spoken to scores of officials in the coupon processing, direct marketing, grocery, and marketing science fields, but nobody could pinpoint the exact reason for the custom or for the particular price of 1/100 of one cent. To make matters worse, we then received a follow-up letter from kathy Pierce, one of the legions who asked us this question:

Kathy proceeded to cite Adams’s answer, and we noted that “old Cec’,” whom we like to think of as a colleague and pal (at least when there are other people around to hear us think), got just about as far as we had in our research. As usual, he was depressingly accurate.

He noted that some states have laws equating coupons with trading stamps (e.g., S&H Green Stamps). Since consumers pay for the “free” stamps in the form of higher prices for groceries, the jurisdictions forced stamp issuers to redeem the stamps for a cash value. In order to comply with these state laws, which were actually designed to curb abuses among trading stamp issuers, coupon issuers assigned a cash value that nobody in his or her right mind would bother to collect.

We make it a policy to try not to repeat questions or answers we’ve seen discussed elsewhere (after all, if we know the answer to a question, it’s not an Imponderable anymore), but since this is such a popular question, and since we have STARTLING NEW INFORMATION, we are pleased to disclose the true story behind the coupon cash value.

Although some other states treat coupons as scrip, the real driving force behind the practice is the state of Kansas. Ed Dunn, a spokesperson for NCH Promotional Services, told us what prompted these state laws. During the Depression, many stamp issuers would claim that their books of stamps were worth much more than they really were. They would then sell merchandise through catalogs at greatly inflated prices.

This caused problems. Because both the “cash value” and redemption prices (in stamps) were greatly inflated, honest stamp issuers were at a competitive disadvantage, because their own books of stamps didn’t seem to be worth much in buying power compared to those of others.

Several states tried to eliminate these injustices by making all books of stamps,
and anything of value that might be used to reduce the price of a product
, have a common value. Obviously, coupons fell into this category.

But Kansas enacted by far the most stringent law. Kansas law overrides the terms and conditions of the coupon for residents of the state and, more important for our purposes, says that
if no cash value is stated on the coupon, the consumer may cash in the coupon at face value
. Obviously, if consumers could take the fifty cents they “save” on their laundry detergent and redeem it for cash, they would. Manufacturers had two choices: make separate coupons for Kansas, or state a cash value on every coupon.

Do folks really try to redeem coupons for the lofty sum of 1/100 of a cent apiece? Not very often (of course, that’s why the cash value is set so low). Most companies will probably pay the tariff, but the consumer is stuck with postage costs, which far exceed the refund.

How
and Why Did 7Up Get Its Name?

7UP (a.k.a. Seven-Up) was the brainchild of an ex-advertising and merchandising executive, C. L. Grigg. In 1920, Grigg formed the Howdy Company in St. Louis, Missouri, and found success with his first product, Howdy Orange drink.

Intent upon expanding his empire, Grigg spent several years testing eleven different formulas of lemon-flavored soft drinks. In 1929, he introduced Seven-Up, then a caramel-colored beverage.

So where did the “7” and “UP” come from? Despite its identification as a lemon-lime drink, 7UP is actually a blend of seven natural flavors. According to Jim Ball, vice-president of corporate communications for Dr Pepper/Seven-Up Companies, Inc., all of the early advertisements for the new drink described a product that was uplifting and featured a logo with a winged 7. Long before any caffeine scares, 7UP was promoted as a tonic for our physical and emotional ills:

7UP’s advertising has improved and changed markedly over the years, but its name has proved to be durably effective, even if customers don’t have the slightest idea what “Seven-Up” means. Grigg could have chosen much worse. Contemplate sophisticated adults sidling up to a bar and ordering a bourbon and Howdy Lemon-Lime drink.

Why
Do the Back Wheels of Bicycles Click When You Are Coasting or Back Pedaling?

Has there ever been a child with a bicycle who has not pondered this Imponderable? We got the scoop from Dennis Patterson, director of import purchasing of the Murray Ohio Manufacturing Co.:

Why
Do Male Birds Tend to Be More Colorful Than Females? Is There Any Evolutionary Advantage?

“Sexual dimorphism” is the scientific term used to describe different appearances of male and female members of the same species. Charles Darwin wrestled with this topic in his theory of sexual selection. Darwin argued that some physical attributes of birds evolved solely to act as attractants to the opposite sex. How can you explain the train of the peacock except to say it is the avian equivalent of a Chippendale’s dancer’s outfit? As Kathleen Etchpare, associate editor of the magazine
Bird Talk
, put it: “As far as an evolutionary advantage goes, the mere number of birds in the world today speaks for itself.”

Sure, but there are plenty of cockroaches around today, too, and they have managed to perpetuate themselves quite nicely without benefit of colorful males. Many ornithologists believe that the main purpose of sexual dimorphism is to send a visual message to predators. When females are nesting, they are ill-equipped to fend off the attacks of an enemy. Michele Ball, of the National Audubon Society, says that “It behooves the female to be dully colored so that when she sits in the nest she is less conspicuous to predators.”

Conversely, the bright plumage of many male birds illustrates the principle of “the best offense is a good defense.” Male birds, without the responsibility of nesting, and generally larger in size than their female counterparts, are better suited to stave off predators. The purpose of their bright coloring might be to warn predators that they will not be easy prey; most ornithologists believe that birds are intelligent enough to register the dimorphic patterns of other birds.

And most animals are as lazy as humans. Given a choice, predators will always choose the easy kill. If a predator can’t find a dully colored female and fears the brightly colored male, perhaps the predator will pick on another species.