Ask Rachel

Ask Rachel
Ask Rachel
04/04/2019

Interesting fact: The FDA wants to force non-dairy milk products to remove “milk” from their labels. But it hasn’t happened yet, possibly because of the covertly powerful milk of magnesia lobby.

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Ask Rachel
03/28/2019

Interesting fact: Exotic spring break destinations like Panama City are starting to ban alcohol on the beaches. This could explain Purgatory’s popularity with the Texas crowds.

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Ask Rachel
03/21/2019

Interesting fact: Board, as in “room and board,” dates to the 1200s as a reference to a table. That’s not funny or anything. It’s not even that interesting. In hindsight, I probably could have figured it out on my own, without the OED.

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Ask Rachel
03/14/2019

Interesting fact: Many Muppets are built on patterns. For instance, Forgetful Jones was built on the same “Large Lavender Live Hand” pattern as Count von Count. This discovery blows my mind more than any 23 And Me results ever could.

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Ask Rachel
03/07/2019

Interesting fact: David Byrne once shaved his beard on stage, with beer instead of shaving cream, as performance art. He ought to have tried it with hot chocolate.

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Ask Rachel
02/28/2019

Interesting fact: Why 12 inches in a foot? The Babylonians developed a counting system known as the Sexagesimal system with a base of 60, and maybe I should have paid more attention in algebra.

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Ask Rachel
02/21/2019

Interesting fact: Hypoallergenic dog breeds might be a myth. Looks like allergens depend more on the individual dog than the breed. Stuff it, Labradoodles.

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Ask Rachel
02/14/2019

Interesting fact: Necco manufactured nearly 8 billion Sweethearts each year. No word on how many of those Sweethearts went unrequited.

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Ask Rachel
02/07/2019

Interesting fact: Rumor on the street is that Netflix may soon be cracking down on password sharing. If you want to make the world a better place, please, please hack us all a workaround.

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Ask Rachel
Ask Rachel
01/31/2019

Interesting fact: We say “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” to mean “be resourceful,” but really, the term originated as “pull oneself over a fence by one’s bootstraps” to mean “that’s freaking impossible.” American Dream 101.

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Ask Rachel
01/24/2019

Interesting fact: Every week, I see bags of recycling sticking out of recycling bins. DON’T DO IT! Those plastic bags aren’t recyclable and can end up in entire loads going to the dump.

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Ask Rachel
01/17/2019

Interesting fact: Every state in the union requires hairstylists to be licensed. It made no sense to me either, until I tried cutting someone’s hair in college once and basically ruined her life. Trust the professionals.

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Ask Rachel
01/10/2019

Interesting fact: The Wikipedia page on answering machines refers to “modern answering machines,” and I’m still laughing at that.

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Ask Rachel
01/03/2019

Interesting fact: John Hughes wrote so many movies, and yet he wrote more than you ever realized. His worse efforts, like those Beethoven the dog films, were penned under his Edmond Dantes pseudonym. No one’s clamoring for a remake of those.

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Ask Rachel
12/20/2018

Interesting fact: Believe it or not, a century ago, whitetail deer were pretty much wiped out across the country. They’ve since staged a comeback, thanks in no small part to the back streets of Durango.

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Ask Rachel
12/13/2018

Interesting fact: Anyone who wants to claim “Baby It’s Cold Outside” is harmless, non-predatory fun needs to check out the original score. The two parts were written for “Wolf” and “Mouse.”

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Ask Rachel
12/06/2018

Interesting fact: Hats do not, in fact, make hair grow faster or slower. They don’t make you go bald or white. I didn’t even realize these were myths about hats until, desperate to fill this space, I looked up “hat hair facts.”

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Ask Rachel
11/29/2018

Interesting fact:
The first swirling money game-show booth (on “The Diamond Head Game”) was called The Money Volcano, and its rules were brutal: any $1 bill in your pocket meant you lost everything.

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Ask Rachel
Ask Rachel
11/21/2018

Interesting fact: Cranberry sauce was first sold to the North American public in 1912. I need to check my calendar, but I think that means it’s not an original Thanksgiving dish.

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Ask Rachel
11/15/2018

Interesting fact: A statistically significant increase in motor vehicle accidents occurs on the Sunday after we turn the clocks back. Let’s go ahead and blame traffic and immigrants on Daylight Savings Time, too.

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