A few questions to keep you searching for a bit...
... questions that seem straightforward enough, but ones to which you might not know the answers.
1. You're driving a rental car and driving into the gas station. How can you tell (without getting out of the car) on which side the gas cap is on? Is it on the left or the right? (It's really annoying to have to get out of the car, walk around, and discover it.)
2. What was the original design for Mount Rushmore? Was it what we see today? How different is the original design?
3. How do you know which is the "right" side of a towel? (Yes, there's a right side and a wrong side. Have you been doing it wrong all these years?)
4. People keep saying things, but I don't know what they mean! What does “one fell swoop mean”?
5. While we're on this topic, what does "heavens to murgatroyd" mean? And who says this anyway?
6. In the story of David and Goliath, David kills the giant with a single stone from his sling. Is this really possible? What kind of a slingshot could do that?
These are especially difficult research questions (we'll have more of those soon enough), but they're examples of things that we see, hear-about, or come-across every day, and yet we don't really know quite what's going on here. This is one of the great features of having a search-engine on your phone--you can just ask and find out the answers quickly.
Search on!
Good day, Dr. Russell and everyone.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this challenge. Everyday questions are super fun and we always learn something new.
Searched:
[ Gas cap location ]
Fuel Icon Foolery
[Mount Rushmore original design]
MOUNT RUSHMORE "...the four presidents were meant to be represented from the waist up, but insufficient funding brought the carving to a halt after completion of their faces..."
[Mount Rushmore original plan blueprint]
I think side in which tag is the "left".
[towel right side]
Soft side up for relaxing, looped side in for drying
[Towel sides], [towels right left sides],
Top 10 facts about towels
[define “one fell swoop mean”]
Yahoo answers gave link to site mentioned on answers.
Reddit answers
["heavens to murgatroyd"], ["heavens to murgatroyd" use]
Q6 still need to SearchResearch more.
Answers
1. You're driving a rental car and driving into the gas station. How can you tell (without getting out of the car) on which side the gas cap is on? Is it on the left or the right? (It's really annoying to have to get out of the car, walk around, and discover it.)
A: It is easy, gas pump triangle icon in the car tells you. Saw video about that some time ago.
2. What was the original design for Mount Rushmore? Was it what we see today? How different is the original design?
A. Doane Robinson wanted western heroes but decided something more national. It shows carved sculptures depicting the faces of U.S. Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.
Picture: Mount Rushmore as Originally Planned
3. How do you know which is the "right" side of a towel? (Yes, there's a right side and a wrong side. Have you been doing it wrong all these years?)
Right side to dry: looped side.
4. People keep saying things, but I don't know what they mean! What does “one fell swoop mean”?
Suddenly; in a single action.
5. While we're on this topic, what does "heavens to murgatroyd" mean? And who says this anyway?
An exclamation of surprise; was popularized by the cartoon character Snagglepuss.
ReplyDelete1. Not yet.
2. [original design for Mount Rushmore] finds lots; for instance
http://kottke.org/11/05/the-original-design-of-mount-rushmore
The presidents were to be depicted from head to waist, but the sculpture was scaled back due to insufficient funding. Pix on same site.
3. ["right" side of a towel] finds, amongst others
https://www.reddit.com/r/YouShouldKnow
A towels two sides are usually different - one has long loops and one short. The side with long loops has more surface area. This side is quicker for drying a surface and can hold more moisture
4. Straight to a favourite Site. http://www.worldwidewords.org/
It means all at once, suddenly... fell actually means some thing of terrible evil or deadly ferocity...The image that Shakespeare’s audience would have brought to mind at once was a falcon plummeting out of the sky to snatch its prey.
5. Same most excellent source says: We have to leave it as one of the great mysteries of etymology. Nobody knows. Same for heavens to Betsy; nobody knows.
http://www.phrases.org.uk/ confirms this. However Snagglepuss is possibley the most recent user of this expression of surprise. Murgatroyd is a very old Yorkshire name. The phrase was used by Gilbert & Sullvan.
6. [goliath acromegaly] finds lots of hits:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Why Malcolm Gladwell Is Wrong About David And Goliath
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2981751/
Newer insights to the neurological diseases among biblical characters of old testament
...stone sunk into his forehead.” Hirsch et al. analyzed this event using contemporary ballistics.[8] Such a high-velocity head injury could have killed even a healthy person from a distance of 30–40 m.
The stone did not kill Goliath neccesarily but losing his head certainly did him in.
[david slingshot] finds even Instructables.com knows about it.
great video on how to make the type Davy used. How to Make David's Sling - David and Goliath Slingshot
great fun. jon
part 1
ReplyDeleteRushmore LoC
added [weapon] to sling to get this
David and Goliath, Ted and Malcolm - courtesy of jon the unknown
…not to be confused with Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice
Quora -single combat
other examples
interesting take - from the Victorian Web - astronauts
from the Huffington article jon mentioned
something about Canada (The Polka Dot Pirate) and something about Mexico from Lawrence Freedman, Emeritus Professor of War Studies King's College London…
Canada - 11 Greatest - PDP is fetching… (I'm intrigued by Red Ketchup & Captain Newfoundland)
Mexico - #14, ahead of Russia - oil & diversity
sling video
glandes
popular weapon with the primitive/prepper/survivalists video power & accuracy
"The practice of stone-throwing has deep religious, cultural and historical resonance, and is grounded in the age-old use of slinging stones among young rural herders whose task it was both to keep watch on livestock, and ward off predators of family flocks, and to hunt birds. A Palestinian legend has it that after the creation God sent the angel Gabriel to distribute rocks all over the world, but he tripped on entering Palestine and spilled most of his load over that country"
source: above
last picture, modern day D&G?
part2
ReplyDelete"This is one of the great features of having a search-engine on your phone--you can just ask and find out the answers quickly."
since Dan seemed to be emphasizing voice search, I thought I'd look a bit at that… 'heavens to murgatroyd & betsy' now, I need to towel off…
'Hell's bells' …he ventured the opinion that the origins of 'Heavens to Betsy' were "completely unsolvable".
Bert Lahr & Betsy Murgatroyd
the use of SIRI
if that is where the technology is going…
non-verbal, non-textual emoji response
Kill me now
SB, Dios, me acaba de matar ahora
biblical tie - Jonah 4:3
emoji pistola
Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface
natural language search
evolution
NYT comparison, Google, SIRI, Alexa, Cortana
NYT frightful 5
"heavens to volksgeist"… in a Dakotan way
ReplyDeleteHola de México. Just quick response.
ReplyDelete#1The fuel pump symbol on gas the gas gage on the dash will have an arrow to left or right
Deb and Anne here.. The first question was easy; Anne knew the answer instantly. There is an arrow on the fuel gauge which points to the direction of the fuel tank. We did check several websites using the search terms which side fuel tank is on and they confirmed that this is the case. Some said to look at the fuel tank symbol and see which side the hose is on and that would also indicate the same information.
ReplyDelete2) Presidents were supposed to be depicted from head to waist but because of insufficient funding the project was scaled back. We used the search terms original design mount rushmore and found several articles which indicated this bit of information. In the wikipedia article on Mount Rushmore we found more information such as Thos. Jefferson was supposed to be in a different location but the rock was too unstable and also Susan B. Anthony was going to be included but additional funding was not forthcoming.
3)There is a right side for towels, the side with the longer loops is the side that is better for drying
4)One fell swoop was used by Shakespeare in MacBeth. Shakespeare used the imagery of a hunting bird's 'fell swoop' to indicate the ruthless and deadly attack by Macbeth's agents. That original meaning is no longer used and now it used to convey suddenness rather than savagery. We found this answer at phrase finder.
5) Will post answers in next entry
probably the best known slingman…
ReplyDeleteMich's glandes
sling, from the rear
again, lead
Bert Lahr does NOT appear to say 'Heaven's to Murgatroyd' in "Meet the People." Stanford has the 2009 DVD and I watched it last night.
ReplyDeleteAt minute 51:25 in the film "The Commodore" describes to "Julie" and "Swanee" the method of christening a ship using the Stork Club Glamour Girl method:
"She grasps the magnum using the continental clutch and with a wild glad cry exclaims, 'I now christen this too, too, divine ship the Aloysius C. Murgatroyd in honor of my grandfather, the well-known horse thief'."
There are no other 'Murgatroyds' in the currently available version of the film. If it was there once, it has been removed at some point.
Kathe Gust
Bert Lahr does NOT appear to say 'Heaven's to Murgatroyd' in "Meet the People." Stanford has the 2009 DVD and I watched it last night.
ReplyDeleteAt minute 51:25 in the film "The Commodore" describes to "Julie" and "Swanee" the method of christening a ship using the Stork Club Glamour Girl method:
"She grasps the magnum using the continental clutch and with a wild, glad cry exclaims, 'I now christen this too, too, divine ship the Aloysius C. Murgatroyd in honor of my grandfather, the well-known horse thief'."
There are no other 'Murgatroyds' in the currently available version of the film. If it was there once, it has been removed at some point.