How Does Aspirin Find a Headache? (3 page)

What
Do All the Chime Signals on Airlines Mean? Are They Uniform from Airline to Airline?

We might not be white-knuckle fliers anymore, but let’s put it this way: We’re closer to a pale pink than a full-bodied red. So we’re not too happy when we find ourselves sitting next to fearful fliers. Why is our fate in life always to be seated alongside a middle-aged passenger taking his or her first flight? Invariably, our rowmates quake when they hear the landing gear go up. And more than one has reacted to the chime signals as if they were a death knell; one skittish woman knocked our Diet Coke off our tray when she heard the chimes. She assumed that the three-chime signal must signify that our flight was doomed. Actually, all that happened of consequence was that our pristine white shirt soon resembled the coat of a dalmatian.

But we always have been curious about the meaning of these chime codes, so we contacted the three largest airlines in the United States—American, United, and Delta—to ask if they would decode the mystery. We were surprised at how forthcoming they were. Nevertheless, for the first time in the history of
Imponderables
, we are going to withhold some of the information our sources willingly provided, for two reasons. First, airline chime-signals vary not only from airline to airline but from plane to plane within companies, and today’s signals are subject to change in the future. Second, every airline
does
have a code to signify a true emergency, and the airlines aren’t particularly excited about the idea of passengers decoding such a signal before the cockpit crew has communicated with flight attendants. Airlines are justifiably concerned about readers confusing emergency signals with innocuous ones and confusing one company’s codes with another’s. We agree.

Michael Lauria, an experienced pilot at United Airlines, told
Imponderables
that he has never had to activate an emergency chime signal. He is much more likely to sound one chime, to indicate that the cockpit wishes to speak to the first-class cabin attendant or (two chimes) to the coach flight attendants. Even if Lauria’s passengers are enduring particularly nasty turbulence, chances are that the cry for help from the cockpit, expressed by the chimes, is more likely to be for a coffee or a soda than for draconian safety measures.

The number of chimes is not the only way of differentiating signals. Some United planes emit different tone frequencies: a lower-tone chime is heard for a passenger call than for a crew call, and a “bing bong” indicates a call from one flight attendant to another.

American Airlines uses different chime configurations to inform attendants when they should prepare for landing, remain seated with seat belts fastened, and call the cockpit crew. Although American does have a designated emergency signal, like other airlines’ it is rarely used.

Delta Airlines features an array of different chime signals, which specify events during a flight. For example, when the “fasten seat belt” signs are turned off, a double high-low chime marks the event. These chimes also tell the flight attendants what elevation the plane has attained. Even during uneventful flights, there are periods of “sterile cockpits,” when attendants are not supposed to disturb the cockpit crew except in an emergency. Sterile cockpits occur during takeoff and landing, and even though domestic airlines no longer allow smoking anywhere on the plane, some airlines still use the turning off “no smoking” sign as the marker for when the pilots can be contacted freely.

On most Delta planes, each phone station has a select tone, so that on a widebody plane, the flight attendant can recognize who is calling, and the flight crew can call any one or all of the flight attendant stations at one time. Alison Johnson, manager of aircraft interiors for Delta, told
Imponderables
that during an emergency, it is important for the flight crew to be able to speak to flight attendants without causing panic among passengers. Obviously, if the entire staff is briefed, a game plan can be established before informing passengers about a potential problem.

Are
Lions Really Afraid of Kitchen Chairs?

Give us a bazooka, a ten-foot pole, forty bodyguards, and excellent life insurance and hospitalization policies, and we might consider going into the ring with a lion.

Come to think of it, we think we’ll still pass on it. But how in the h
@# did professional animal trainers choose such inappropriate tools as a whip and a kitchen chair? Why would a kitchen chair tame a lion? It doesn’t even scare us!

At one time, animal trainers did use more forceful weapons against big cats. In his book
Here Comes the Circus
, author Peter Verney reports that the foremost trainer of the 1830s and 1840s, Isaac Van Amburgh, used heavy iron bars. Other trainers employed red-hot iron, goads, and even water hoses to control unmanageable beasts.

As far as we could ascertain, the considerably calmer instrument of the kitchen chair was introduced by the most famous lion tamer of the twentieth century, Clyde Beatty, who trained lions from 1920 until the late 1960s (when, ironically, he died of a car accident). His successor at the Clyde Beatty Circus, David Hoover, has strong feelings about the psychology of lions. Hoover believes that each lion has a totally different set of fears and motivations. For example, one lion he trained had a perverse fear of bass horns, while another went crazy when the circus’s peanut roaster was operating.

Hoover believes that the only way for a human to control a lion is to gain psychological dominance over the animal—what he calls a “mental bluff.” He also feels it important that the lion believe it couldn’t harm the trainer. When he sustained injuries in the ring. Hoover always finished the act.

Hoover favored a blank cartridge gun over a whip. The purpose of the blanks was simply to disrupt the animal’s concentration:

But what about the chair?

Ron Whitfield, lion tamer at Marine World Africa USA, told
Imponderables
that the chair is used more for theatrical reasons than for defense. If the instrument of the lion tamer is used as a tool of distraction rather than aggression, it makes sense to use flimsy props. Lions can be trained to bounce, swat at the chair—even to knock the chair out of the hands of the trainer. Ron assured us that if the lion wanted to attack, the chair would not offer any real protection.

Whitfield, who has trained lions for twenty-two years, has never used a chair. (He uses a stick and a crop whip.) The whip, he believes, is used as an extension of the hand of the trainer—to cue lions, who are lazy by nature. If they are sitting idly when they are supposed to be performing, a snap near them or a touch on their behinds will provide “motivation” to perform. And the whip provides negative reinforcement. Like a child, the lion learns that certain behaviors will induce a sting on the behind and will alter its behavior accordingly.

Even if lions have been performing in acts for years, they are still wild animals. Gary Priest, animal behavior specialist at the San Diego Zoo, reminds us that much of the behavior of even a “tamed” lion is instinctual and automatic. Like Hoover, Priest emphasizes the necessity for trainers to demonstrate a lack of fear of the animal. Without intervention of some kind, lions would revert to the appetitive cycle (crouching, eyes squinting, ears pinned back, lowering into a crouch, and springing) characteristic of lions on the hunt.

If trainers run or show fear, Priest explains, lions will think of them as prey. But if you approach the lion before it snares you, the appetitive cycle is disrupted. In the wild, no prey
would
approach a lion, so the cat is not genetically encoded to respond to this aggressiveness. (Indeed, Priest told us that if you ever encounter a lion in the wild, especially one that is starting to crouch, do
not
run away. Instead, run
toward
the lion, yelling “bugga bugga bugga,” or some such profundity. Says Priest: “This will probably save your life,” as the lion usually retreats when confronted.)

Priest thinks that the whip and chair are a good combination, with the noise from the whip a particularly good distraction and the chair allowing the trainer to approach the lion and still have some distance and (minimal) protection.

The one part of this Imponderable we would have loved to unravel is how and why Clyde Beatty thought of the idea of using a kitchen chair in the first place. Did he have a scare with a cat one day when the chair was the only object handy? Was he sitting on a chair when a lion attacked? Or did he just want an excuse to drag his favorite kitchen chair around the world with him?

Why
Is Pistachio Ice Cream Colored Green?

We first were asked this question in 1988 but decided not to answer it because we thought the answer was obvious: Pistachio nuts
are
green (sort of). Sure, you have to liberate the nutmeats from their ivory or red-colored shells (please don’t ask us why pistachios are dyed red—see
Imponderables
for the thrilling answer), and then detach the thin, reddish-brown husk. Underneath its wrappers, though, is a yellowish nut with an obvious green tinge.

But this question seems to be on the minds of North Americans everywhere, and we are the last to deprive our readers of the knowledge that can set them free. We first contacted Ed Marks, an ice cream expert and historian, who told us that the first reference he could find to green pistachio ice cream was in
The Standard Manual for Soda and Other Beverages
(1897), by A. Emil Hiss. The directions state: “Color green with a suitable delicate color.”