Perhaps you can help. Being someone born with very different hair, I am often perplexed at why things are the way they are. That’s why I read your column–to find out things that no one else could answer. For example: (1) Why is it that two wrongs don’t make a right, but three rights make a left? (2) If it’s a penny for your thoughts, why does everyone put their two cents in? (3) How come there’s an expiration date on sour cream? (4) How come it’s a pair of pants, but only one bra? (5) When the guy invented cottage cheese, how did he know it was done? (6) Why do we play at a recital and recite at a play? (7) If olive oil comes from olives, where does baby oil come from? (8) Why do you drive on a parkway and park on a driveway? (9) If vegetarians eat vegetables, what do humanitarians eat? (10) Why are there locks on the doors of 24-hour convenience stores? (11) Why are boxing rings square? (12) If pro and con are opposites, is Congress the opposite of progress?
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For years I have wondered why electricians call scrap copper, usually in the form of old or unused cable, “rabbit.” Everyone seems to have a theory, but even the old-timers can’t really say why or how the term came to be used. –Jerry Butler, Chicago
In search from A to Z they passed,
She called her “darling Margaret.”
From “Margarita” down to “Meg,”
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): illustration/Slug Signorino.
