Hey Matt: What makes fancy ketchup so fancy? Can you get plain ketchup? -- Bobby, the net There are officially designated fancy tomatoes, but no fancy ketchup. Fancy ketchup is plain ordinary ketchup in a …
April 22, 2004
Straight from the Hip
Archived articles
What's so fancy about fancy ketchup?
Tail-light red
Hey Matt: Why are nearly all automobile tail lights the exact same shade of red? Does it have a name? -- Matt, on 805 southbound Commuter-coma Red. Panic-stop Red. Screeeech! Red. Look Out! Red. Hey, …
April 22, 2004
Tongue muscles
Hello Matt: Me and a friend of mine were wondering, what is the strongest muscle in the body? I say the tongue, he says legs or arms??????? -- Christine and Christine's friend, the net Tongue? …
April 15, 2004
Route 905. A spur? A bypass? A mistake?
Matthew: When I was learning how to drive many years ago, my dad gave me a tip to help me keep from getting lost: East-west freeways/highways are indicated by even numbers and north-south by odd …
April 15, 2004
Southern Lights
Heymatt: How come I've never heard about the Southern Lights? I've heard of the Northern Lights. -- Jay, In the Dark As usual, you haven't been paying attention. Northern Lights = Aurora Borealis. Southern Lights …
April 15, 2004
Rama-o-rama
Hey, Matt: I saw in the newspaper there is a car-o-rama for the latest new cars. Where does this o-rama business originate? -- Pat N. Paul, the net Mankind has always been a sucker for …
April 8, 2004
Sunburn on ice
Heymatt: Does the temperature have any bearing on how much sunburn/sun damage a person receives? If I'm outside on a sunny, cloudless 60 degree day, won't I get as much of a tan as I …
April 1, 2004
Ask Matthew Alice
Yo Matt: How come so many Arabic words with a "k" sound are spelled with a "q" instead? Qaddafi, Qatar, Iraq, al-Qaeda, etc. Since these are Anglicized spellings and not Arabic ones, who decides on …
April 1, 2004
Boomers enter the weird-hair years
Matt: What is it with those bizarre hairs that sometimes seem to grow overnight on weird places of our body? They just appear as if they were fed Miracle-Gro. They're two or three times longer …
March 25, 2004
Freeway flowers
Hey, Matt: What's the story on the bright yellow and orange flowers that always bloom along the freeways right about now? Someone told me that they are a result of truckers scattering flower seeds from …
March 25, 2004
The clash of the roach coaches
Matolo: Who determines turf for industrial catering trucks companies? You never see two trucks there from different caterers. How do these folks decide who gets what company to sell to? I envision midnight turf wars�sabotage�caterlords�cement …
March 11, 2004