Mr. Write's Page

The Questions…

1. What do you call that curious vertical depression in the center of your upper lip?

2. What is the formal title of Queen Elizabeth II?

3. Where did young Sam Walton work as a management trainee before he went solo and founded Walmart?

4. On The Simpsons, Homer’s nefarious boss Mr. Burns answers phone calls with the greeting “Ahoy-hoy.” What is that about?

5. In the 1950s, the Soviet Union banned a popular American toy because it symbolized “the emptiness of American culture.” What toy?

The Answers…

1. It’s called a “philtrum.” It has no function in modern humans, having evolved from the little groove between the nostrils of dogs and other mammals. The groove carries moisture from the mouth to the nose pad (probably because a wet nose traps odor particles better).

2. Her official title is “Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and her Other Realms and Territories, Queen Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.”

3. Sam worked in a J. C. Penney store in Des Moines, Iowa, from 1940 until 1942.

4. “Ahoy-hoy” was the greeting suggested in the 1870s by Alexander Graham Bell. Bell’s arch-rival Thomas Edison preferred “Hello.”

5. The hula hoop.