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From: mrjones@nando.net (MrJones)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: How Does Olive Oil Lose Its Virginity?
Date: 14 Sep 1994 20:55:50 -0400

While reading the Raleigh _News & Observer_'s Arts and Entertainment section (Sunday, Sept. 11, 1994), I found the following in the section entitled "Ten North Carolina authors preview their work." I contacted Bruce first before posting, and he noted the two corrections which follow the article.

_How Does Olive Oil Lose Its Virginity?_ By Bruce Tindall and Mark Watson
William Morrow. 224 pages. $9
DUE: NOVEMBER

(Bruce Tindall is a software developer at SAS Institute. Mark Watson is a writer who lives in Cary.)

Our 1991 book of offbeat questions and answers, "Did Mohawks Wear Mohawks?" got its start when we decided to turn off that censor in our heads. He's the little voice who whispers, whenever you find yourself wondering about some interesting question, "Nobody knows the answer, and you couldn't possibly find it out yourself."

Children constantly ask things like "Mommy, why are there air?" but adults seem to suppress their own natural curiosity. It's still there, though, and for centuries people have satiated by reading Herodotus, Pliny, Tom Brunam's [sic] "Directory of Misinformation" [sic], or David Feldman's "Imponderables" series.

We had been fans of that genre for a long time, and developed a habit of listing quirky questions about things you encounter everyday but take for granted. We sought answers at least as much to satisfy our curiosity as to write a book.

We ran into a lot of serendipity along the way, like the expert on hair color who also turned out to be the world's leading authority on stinky feet. Some people were generous beyond the call of duty. One Calcutta judge sent us articles to help answer the question, "What caste would a foreigner who converted to Hinduism belong to?" (Answer: Unless they can persuade a higher caste to officially accept them, they become low-status Sudras.)

After "Mohawks," the publisher wanted us to write a sequel, which we were glad to do because there were plenty of questions left to answer, such as: "Why is the guy on the playing cards called Jack?" (a generic name for a man, but in other cultures, the same card is called the "valet," "soldier," and even "hussy"). And "Why do people rub one finger across another when saying 'Tsk tsk, shame on you'?" (because it represents "sharpening the finger of scorn," as if with a knife; Germans call it "peeling the turnip").

Now readers are sending us questions, too.

Note 1: it should be David Burnam, who wrote the "Dictionary of Misinformation."

Note 2: a picture accompanies the article. It is a photo of 2 men, one bearded, button-down-wearing man with hand on head (as if scratching absentmindedly), the other in a polo shirt, left arm crossed across his body, right elbow resting on left arm, chin resting on hand in the "hmmmmm" position. The men are not identified. (Sorry, no GIFs available.)

Steve "glad to be a help to a fellow Heel" Jones