I don’t know if it’s because I’m a writer, overly curious, or just plain weird, but my brain sometimes astonishes me with the things it wonders about. Some days I just fixate on the absurdness of a random thought that stopped me in my tracks. Let me give you some examples:
When Henry Ford first rolled out his Model T, everyone wanted one of these new-fangled contraptions. Automobiles they became known as, or autos, using the shortened version. Today we call them cars. How did we get there? How did we go from saying automobiles to cars? Cars is nothing like automobiles in sight or sound. Cars isn’t even a shortened version of automobile like auto is. Heck car and automobile only even have one common letter – the “a.” Who started calling autos cars and why? Do you ever wonder about that? Where did car come from?
I also wonder why we can inflate something, and something can be deflated, but nothing is ever just flated. What the heck? How can you make something bigger or smaller when it doesn’t even exist? What’s up with that?
And this thought: most of us have a heating and air conditioning system of some sort in our home. The HVAC unit. The heating portion is the heater. Duh right? Makes sense. But the air conditioning, while really being the cooling unit, isn’t called that. Why don’t we call it a cooler? That’s what it does? The air conditioner conditions the air so that it is cool, but doesn’t it also condition the air so that it is warm? I’m so confused. You can buy just a heater that heats, but if you buy just a cooler you’re not going to get an air conditioner that cools, you’re going to get an insulated box to store your beer in. Seems wrong to me. Why do we say heating and air conditioning instead of heater and cooler the way it should be? Why isn’t an air conditioner a cooler and a cooler an ice chest the way it should be? Hmmm. So bizarre.
And here’s a question everyone should be asking: Why isn’t bacon a standard taco topping? If you think about it, tacos are just deconstructed cheeseburgers, right? You’ve got your meat, your cheese, your lettuce, your tomatoes. Add some bacon and you’ve got yourself a bacon cheeseburger. I say, let’s start adding bacon to tacos and pump those bad boys up and add a whole new level to Taco Tuesday. But Taco Bell does not offer bacon even for an extra couple of bucks. They simply have no bacon. I think they should add bacon to the menu, don’t you?
And I’ll leave you with this little mystery: You can buy, find, order, whatever, an extra small size or an extra large size but you can NEVER buy, find, order an extra medium size. Just think about that.
What oddities do you guys wonder about? I’m not talking about the language things like why we drive on a parkway and park in a driveway. I’m talking about things that don’t make sense. Like why isn’t bacon a standard taco topping?
Word of the Day: Decalcomania
Fun fact about me: My local newspaper wrote another article about me last week. Not sure why I’m so peculiar that they feel the need to write about me, but hey, whatever.
Original post by Jansen Schmidt, March 2021. Images by Google.
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Once again, WordPress wouldn’t accept my comment. Nothing controversial – just wondering why we call appliances that heat cold water hot water heaters rather than cold water heaters or just water heaters.
David N.Walker
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Exactly – I’m with you on that. Why is that? If the water was already hot we wouldn’t need to heat it now would we.
Thanks for visiting today and for your continued efforts to be social. I appreciate the effort and apologize for the frustration.
Patricia
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It’s good to ponder life’s mysteries. I’ve always wondered why, while driving, you’ll see a single shoe alongside the road, but never two…
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Yes – me too! I actually blogged about that a long time ago – and in fact, you were the recipient of the prize that I awarded for commenting on that post. Here’s the link as a reminder:
https://jansenschmidt.wordpress.com/2015/04/13/the-misadventures-of-johnny-one-shoe/
Thanks for bringing a smile to my face today with that happy little walk down memory land. Have a wonderful rest of the week.
Patricia
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Yes, the world is a perplexing place. I’ve always wondered why in restaurants they’re called waiters. The customers are the ones doing the waiting. The server is busy running around, taking and serving orders. We’re waiting for him/her. Some places call them servers, why isn’t that the case everywhere. Do you know? I’m waiting.
And speaking of waiting, the answer to your single shoe dilemma is easy. They’re waiting for the other shoe to drop.
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So much wisdom and knowledge you possess. Thanks for making me feel stupid about the one-shoe deal.
But seriously, I do believe the “waiters” ought to be called servers also. As you pointed out, the customers are the ones doing the waiting. It’s backwards. So many things we need to straighten out. Thank goodness the world has people like us to take care of the backwards things.
Have a wonderful rest of the week.
Patricia
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