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explainer: Answers to your questions about the news.

The Questions We Never Answered in 2007Digging through the bottom of the Explainer mailbag.

By Daniel Engber
Posted Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2007, at 3:36 PM ET

(Continued from page 1)

• If an unscrupulous bar owner was to mix diethylene to, say, whiskey, what would the effect be on the consumer?

• I am an Afro-American woman. I am in my youthful 50s. My hair is strong and a little past the shoulders. I wear it pressed (hot combed or flat iron). It is also a salt-and-pepper color; I get great compliments on it. The problem I have is static. Could you give me some tips on what to use to stop this?

• There was the most beautiful sunset here in Indiana last evening. Would the California fires have anything to do with that?

• I haven't seen this in the news, but perhaps you could explain it anyway. Why do people feel like destroying things when angry?

• Why do most reptiles go to sleep when you rub their bellies? I have done it myself with everything from domestic water dragons to wild alligators, but I heard recently that it is bad for them—and they only appear to be sleeping, when in fact they are having trouble breathing. Is this true?

• Would it be possible to "shoot" someone with "lightning"? Like, a Taser with no electrodes.

• Why do men almost never win on ABC's Wheel of Fortune?

• Are any of the scorpions in central Vietnam deadly? I was stung three times one night, and evacuated to a hospital where doctors said the one that stung me was the only lethal one in Vietnam. Truth or lie?

• Why don't we drop medical waste and nuclear waste into active volcanoes, the "ultimate high-temperature incinerators"?

• Hello. I am an editor and writer and I would like for everyone to change some letters that are now in lowercase to uppercase. An example would be the 18th century to the 18th Century. Where does one go about starting to do this?

• Is it "open sees me" or "open says me"?

• Can dogs be mentally retarded?

• Why don't they build into cars a secret button for police to use, and when these people are trying to get away from police down the freeway and city streets at 100 mph, the following police car could push the button, making the engine on the speeding car stop? Surely there must be some smart person who could make this.

• Why does having a foreign accent make a person seem more attractive?

• How often are presidents born, and how often do they die? Do they die in bunches, or on average every four years?

• When a fly lands on a ceiling, does it execute a barrel roll or an inside loop?

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Daniel Engber is an associate editor at Slate. He can be reached at .
Illustration by Robert Neubecker. Photograph of a cat on Slate's home page by Getty Creative Images.
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Remarks from the Fray:

I was just sitting on my couch popping antacids and chasing them with oj while petting the softest cat in the world. The baby was passed out from all the O'Doul's I put in her bottle so I had a little peace and quiet. I noticed a fly execute a perfect triple-lutz before landing on the ceiling, and I reached for the fly swatter. It wasn't where I had left it because my mentally retarded dog was in the corner rubbing his gums against it. I decided not to try and take it from him because he had those crazy eyes again.

I turned on the tv to watch a little Wheel of Fortune, but since it was all male contestants I knew there was no point. Instead, I decided to write the Slate Explainer and see if he could help me figure out a thing or two. Life's complicated, you know? I'll do my SWAT team work-out later.

--Lawing

(To reply, click here.)

My favorite question is the "what would happen if a bartender mixed diethylene with whiskey?"

Of course, what I heard when I read that was "Can I kill my husband by mixing diethylene with his favorite whiskey?"

Glad the Explainer passed that one over.

--sclarocco

(To reply, click here.)

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