Pointless Questions...with Aaron Mucciolo

I’ve got a question for me. What is that ‘second wind’ that gets you rolling during a long, long, long night in front of a computer typing your Constitutional Law paper? I’ll look into that after I wake up Sunday.

When a bunch of birds are chirping at each other at once, are they having a meeting? –Maya Levy, double-degree fifth-year

“When you’re hearing all the birds in the trees, they’re all just doing their own thing...mating calls, or singing,” says Phyllis Dague, an assistant with Cornell University’s Lab of Ornithology. Birds may call out to the entire field, but they are just trying to reach one other bird, generally their mate or their potential mate. They’d be chirping the same chirp if there were 50 birds, or if they were flyin’ solo.
The only exception that came to Ms. Dague’s mind was crows. Individual crows do communicate to a group of their fellow feathered flyers when they act as a sentry for the group, sitting up in a tree keeping watch and then calling out warnings about any possible dangers.

Okay, I was just doing some deep thinking here. If you can be ‘nonchalant,’ can you be ‘chalant?’ –my esteemed editor, Blake Rehberg

Yes you can, but it requires you to be Old French. Chalant was a conjugation of the Old French verb chaloir, meaning “to be concerned.” At some point, the prefix ‘non’ was added to provide a word with the complete opposite meaning — describing a person who isn’t likely to become upset about much. The English apparently lifted nonchalant directly into their language in the late 17th century and didn’t bother to take the original word along for the ride.

What’s the geographical center of the United States? –the office staff, trying to help me fill some space

The Census Bureau considers the geographical center of any area to be the point where, if the surface were of a uniform weight, the surface would balance.
Including Alaska and Hawaii the center is on the western border of South Dakota in Butte County, 17 miles west of Castle Rock.
If you are considering just the continental 48 states, the center is in Smith County, Kansas, just outside of Lebanon, in the middle of a pig farm.

Well, looks like that does it for this year of Pointless Questions. And please, remember, keep those questions coming over the summer, Gibson’s never sold any recipe to Entenmann’s, and never go up against a member of our armed forces when alcohol is on the line.

Got questions? Great! I’ve got spare time on my hands and no other usable skills! E-mail aaron.mucciolo@oberlin.edu or write to Pointless Questions, c/o The Oberlin Review, Wilder Box 90, Oberlin OH, 44074. Your name will be used only with your permission.