Ask Rachel

Interesting fact: A “Jerry” is apparently “one who demonstrates complete and utter ignorance in their sport, mostly in skiing.” Looks like we’ll be renaming this column “Ask Jerry.”

Interesting fact: The release of the first “Avengers” movie ignited outrage abroad because it was promoted with the tagline “Hey Japan, this is a movie.” It was probably an innocent translation mistake, like all the kanji tattoos ever bestowed on white people.

Interesting fact: You’d think the Earth could have its own day. But no: Earth Day has to be shared with National Girl Scout Leaders Day and National Jelly Bean Day. At least it only gets elbowed out by National Clean Out Your Medicine Cabinet Day when they coincide on the third Friday of April.

Interesting fact: An easy-to-hit pitch is often called a meatball, presumably because meatballs were juicy and enticing and irresistible back in the 1940s when the term was minted. I like to think we’ve advanced our cultural tastes since then.

Interesting fact: Grok is a neologism from Robert A. Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land. It sort of means “to understand,” but with a whole lot of nuance that I just don’t grok yet.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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