Font of Knowledge

A sacrifice bunt is a play in baseball (or fast-pitch softball) where the batter lays down a bunt with the primary goal being to allow one or more runners already on base to advance.  The team up to bat is willing to have the batter thrown out easily at first base (which he usually is) in order to move up the runner(s).

The sacrifice bunt play is chosen when it is deemed preferable to hitting away and risking a double play or a strikeout/pop-up which result in an out too but fail to advance the runner(s).

It’s called a sacrifice bunt becase the hitter is essentially sacrificing his at-bat for what is likely to be an easy out in order to help the team by advancing the runner(s).

A shooting star is not a star at all.  It is the visible trail of a meteroid entering Earth’s atmosphere at very high speed.  Friction with the atmosphere causes such intense heat that a visible trail appears.

In most cases, the meteroid is small and it burns up completely before reaching the ground.  If it does happen to reach the ground, it is called a meteorite instead.

In any case, it is not a star.

My fellow Americans,

The U.S. Senate is made up of two senators from each state.  That currently makes a total of 100 senators - since we have 50 states.

It’s been that way since Hawaii joined the union in 1959.

Thank you for your question.

If you play Blackjack for any length of time (trust me!), you’ll inevitably hear someone say that, “only fools split fours, fives, or faces”. Well, that’s almost correct but not quite.

In fact, it is correct basic strategy to split a pair of fours under the following conditions:

• It is a multi-deck game (the most common games are 6 or 8 decks dealt from a shoe)
• The dealer’s up card is a five or a six
• Double after split is allowed

The last item is the key.  If double after split is not allowed, the proper play is to treat your pair of fours as a total of eight and just hit it.

You won’t win every hand this way but, over the long run, that’s the correct way to play your pair of fours (assuming you’re not counting cards - but that’s a whole separate series of posts!).

So, try it with confidence next time.  And don’t worry about anyone who might give you the “fools” line.  You are right and will do better than those players over time.

Although cranberries were probably available during the first Thanksgivings, sugar, a main ingrediate of cranberry sauce, was a rare luxury and not readily available.  The first known references to cranberry sauce appear around  1663, and mention a sweet sauce made with boiled cranberries served with their turkey.

Synthetic motor oil lasts at least three times longer than conventional motor oil, so 10,000 miles between oil changes should be fine.  Even though synthetic motor oil costs over three times as much as conventional, there are several compelling reasons to use synthetic:

• Less synthetic motor oil boils off than conventional oil, so fewer particulates are emitted
• Fewer oil changes means more free time for you
• Synthetic oil reduces the total amount of waste oil to be recovered
• Some engines require synthetic oil to maintain warranty; check your owners manual
• Fewer trips to the shop saves money, so the total cost of using synthetic is reduced

Your owners manual will recommend oil change periods for your vehicle, and may require you to follow this schedule to maintain your warranty.  The Speed Racer recommendation is to live large and change your synthetic motor oil every 10,000 miles.

Tornado wind speeds are ranked using the Enhanced Fujita (EF) Scale.  The speeds are as follows:

• EF0 65–85 mph      (53.5% of all tornados)
• EF1 86–110 mph    (31.6% of all tornados)
• EF2 111–135 mph  (10.7% of all tornados)
• EF3 136–165 mph  (3.4% of all tornados)
• EF4 166–200 mph  (0.7% of all tornados)
• EF5 >200 mph       (Less than 0.1% of all tornados)

The most recently recorded EF5 tornado occurred in Parkersburg, Iowa on May 25, 2008 and destroyed half of the town.

It’s pretty commonly known that a football (American) field is 100 yards long (Ok, plus two ten-yard end zones). But, how wide is it?

Well, it turns out that a football field is 160 feet wide. That works out to 53 1/3 yards. Don’t ask me why it’s such an odd number of yards. That’s just the way it is.