Why do Clocks run clockwise? (29 page)

What Does M&M Stand For?

Two names—Mars and Murrie, the head honchos at M&M Candies in the early 1940s.

Why Are There More Brown M&M’s Than Any
Other Color, and How Do They Determine the
Ratio of Colors?

M&M/Mars conducts market research to answer precisely these types of questions. Consumers have shown a consistent preference for brown M&M’s, so they predominate.

228 / DAVID FELDMAN

Why Did They Take Away Red M&M’s? Why Have
They Put Them Back Recently?

Red M&M’s were victims of the Red Dye No. 2 scare, and were dropped in 1976. Although Mars didn’t actually use Red Dye No.

2 to color the red M&M’s, the company was understandably concerned that the public might be frightened. Once it decided that consumers not only would accept the red M&M’s again, but would welcome them back, Mars, Inc. complied.

Although many people know that red M&M’s were dropped and then brought back, few realize that the mix of colors in plain M&M’s is different from the peanut version:

Color

Percent in Plain

Percent in Peanut

M&M’s

M&M’s

Brown

30

30

Yellow

20

20

Red

20

20

Orange

10

10

Green

10

20

Tan

10

0

M&M’s seem to be an endless source of Imponderables. As soon as you answer one, another pops out. Why would consumers like more peanut greens than plain greens in the mix? Why would tan, the worthy companion of plain oranges and greens, be shunned completely by peanut buyers?

Submitted by Gail Kessler, of Newton, Massachusetts. Thanks also
to: Marley Sims, of Van Nuys, California
.

WHY DO CLOCKS RUN CLOCKWISE? / 229

How Do Manufacturers Decide Whether Freezers
Go on the Top or the Bottom of Refrigerators?

Until the early 1950s, almost all freezer compartments were top-mounted. This was a logical arrangement, for the compressor of the refrigerator, the warmest single device in the appliance, was located on the bottom, furthest away from the coldest device—the freezer.

Clearly, this was the most fuel-efficient configuration, for the refrigerator unit acted to cushion the impact of the heat transference.

Placing the freezer next to the compressor is a little like placing an air conditioner next to the fireplace and running them both at the same time—much energy is wasted.

Mysteriously, in the 1950s, bottom-mounted freezers became the rage. The most common rationalization for the popularity of bottom-mounts was that the freezer was used less often than the refrigerator, so it made sense to place the least used compartment in the least convenient place. A more likely explanation was that by introducing bottom-mounts, refrigerator manufacturers were able to appeal to the inherent trendiness of American consumers. Bottom-mounts made a blah appliance sexy by adding a new design element. If we bought cars with V-8 engines and huge fins that got ten miles per gallon, why not buy a refrigerator that burned electricity but showed a little panache. At their peak, bottom-mounts commanded almost 50 percent of the American refrigerator market and were clearly the premium design for those of breeding and distinction—that is, until the introduction of the side-by-side refrigerator.

Side-by-sides quickly became the choice of all upstanding, upscale Americans and have never lost that position. Today, approximately 75 percent of all refrigerators manufactured are top-mounts; 23

percent are side-by-sides; and only 2 percent are bottom-mounts.

One does pay dearly for the privilege of buying a side-by-side—they are usually priced hundreds of dollars higher than their rival designs.

As might be expected, side-by-sides tend to be bought by an 230 / DAVID FELDMAN

older and more affluent consumer. The top-mount sells disproportionately more to the younger and less affluent buyer. The bottom-mount market falls between them, but sales skew toward an older clientele.

If the main argument for the top-mount is its fuel efficiency, couldn’t the compressor be placed on top of bottom-mount refrigerators? Some manufacturers do move the compressor for bottom-mounts, but there are inherent disadvantages to this scheme that counteract any energy savings. If placed near the top, a compressor would waste prime space for food storage. Also, as Blaine Keib, a spokesperson for Amana Refrigerators, told
Imponderables
, economy of scale is achieved by allowing the guts of the machinery to be identical from one model to another.

Ultimately, whether to top-mount or bottom-mount is a less than profound question to refrigerator manufacturers. Currently, we are energy conscious, so top-mounts reign supreme. A bottom-mount fad could revive; if so, appliance makers will be pleased to oblige.

Submitted by Steve Thompson, of La Crescenta, California
.

WHY DO CLOCKS RUN CLOCKWISE? / 231

Why Do Hot Dogs Come Ten to a Package and
Hot-Dog Buns Come Eight to a Package?

In order to answer this most frequently asked Imponderable, we must acknowledge that, to some extent, this is a chicken and egg question. Officials from the hot-dog and bun industries tended to be a tad defensive about the whole issue, so let’s clear the air. We aren’t trying to assign blame here, only to make this world a better place to live. But to achieve this harmony, it is necessary to delve into the messy history of hot dog and hot-dog bun packaging, and to let the chips fall where they may. As the cliché goes,
somebody
has to do it.

The hot dog, of course, is simply a form of sausage, and sausage, have been with us at least as far back as the ninth century B.C. (they were mentioned in Homer’s
Odyssey
). We 232 / DAVID FELDMAN

won’t even go into who created the first hot dog, or where it origin-ated, because we don’t want to jeopardize
Imponderables
sales in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, or Wien (aka Vienna), Austria. Suffice it to say that, by the late seventeenth century, “dachshund sausages,”

what we now call “hot dogs,” were sold commercially in Europe.

No one knows for sure who was the first person to serve a dachshund sausage in a roll, but one popular story is that a German immigrant sold dachshund sausages, along with milk rolls and sauerkraut, from a pushcart in New York City’s Bowery during the 1860s. However they were consumed, dachshund sausages took New York by storm. In 1871, Charles Feltman set up the first Coney Island hot-dog stand, and Nathan’s later became an institution.

It was also a New Yorker who coined the term “hot dog,” in 1901.

On a cold April day during baseball season, concessionaire Harry Stevens was losing his shirt trying to peddle ice cream and cold soda, so he sent his salesmen out to buy dachshund sausages and rolls.

Vendors sold them to frozen customers by yelling, “They’re red hot!

Get your dachshund sausages while they’re red hot!” Sports cartoon-ist Tad Dorgan, sitting in the press box bereft of ideas, drew a cartoon with barking dachshund sausages nestled warmly in their buns.

Dorgan didn’t know how to spell “dachshund,” so he substituted

“hot dog.” The cartoon was a sensation, and the expression “hot dog” stuck.

The hot-dog bun, in its current configuration, was introduced at the St. Louis “Louisiana Purchase Exposition” in 1904 by Bavarian Anton Feuchtwanger. At first, he loaned out white gloves to customers to handle his hot sausages, but when the gloves weren’t returned he asked his baker brother for help and was soon presented with the slotted hot-dog bun we know today.

In the early twentieth century, hot dogs were purchased not in grocery stores, but only in butcher shops. They were stored in bulk boxes, and one simply told the butcher how many “dogs” one wanted to buy. From all evidence, hot dogs then were the same size as

“conventional” hot dogs are today—approximately WHY DO CLOCKS RUN CLOCKWISE? / 233

five inches long and about 1.6 ounces in weight. Certainly, by the time the hot-dog makers automated, this size was standard.

Not until the 1940s were hot dogs sold in grocery stores in the cellophane containers we see today. Almost all of the early hot-dog companies sold hot dogs in packages of ten, making each package a convenient one pound.

Perhaps the main reason the number of buns and hot dogs per package never matched was that when hot-dog buns were first introduced, hot dogs were being sold in butcher shops in varying quantities. Sandwich rolls traditionally had been sold in packages of eight. Kaiser rolls and hamburger buns, like hot-dog buns, had always been baked in clusters of four in pans designed to hold eight rolls. This practice, more than anything else, seems to explain why hot-dog buns usually come eight to a pack.

Today, pans are manufactured to allow ten or twelve hot-dog buns to be baked simultaneously, but Pepperidge Farm, for one, told us that these pans are relatively difficult to obtain. Ekco told
Imponderables
that their eight-bun pans heavily outsell other varieties.

It is clear that the number of buns or dogs in a package is more the result of tradition than energetic planning, but certain trends are rendering this Imponderable semiobsolete. Very quietly the bun industry, and more particularly the hot-dog industry, are introducing new sizes.

Many regional hot-dog companies have long sold packages of eight wieners, often calling them “dinner franks” because their larger size makes them more appropriate to serve as an entree for dinner than as a luncheon sandwich or snack. Several companies make quarter-pounders, sold four to a package. Kosher hot dogs have traditionally been larger, and thus come with fewer dogs per package.

Armour, and many other companies, are introducing even bigger frank packages (Armour sells sixteen-ounce and twenty-four—ounce packages). In the South, hot dogs are often sold in bulk two-pound bags as well as in conventional cellophane packages.

Similar innovation is entering the bakery business. Conti 234 / DAVID FELDMAN

nental Baking, the largest producer of hot-dog buns (and the parent company of Wonder bread), and American Bakery now sell ten-bun packages in many areas.

None of the many companies we talked to indicated that it knew (or cared) what its compatriots in the other field were doing. American Bakeries, like Wonder, is experimenting with different packages in different regions, but not in response to what hot-dog packagers are doing. Everyone seems to want to march to his own drummer.

Imponderables
humbly suggests a summit meeting at a neutral site to discuss these differences that have created chaos. Until then, we will be stuck with orphan frankfurters, left without the shelter of a bun.

Submitted by Charlie Doherty, of Northfield, Illinois. Thanks also
to: Lisa Barba, of Corona, California; Tom and Marcia Bova, of
Rochester, New York; Kathy A. Brookins, of Sandusky, Ohio;
Sharon Michele Burke, of Menlo Park, California; Paul Funn
Dunn, of Decatur, Illinois; Kent Hall, of Louisville, Kentucky;
David Hartman, of New York, New York; Mary Jo Hildyard, of
West Bend, Wisconsin; Mary Katinos, of Redondo Beach, California; Joanna Parker, of Miami, Florida; Mary Romanidis, of
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Terry Rotter, of Willowick, Ohio;
Glenn Worthman, of Palo Alto, California
.

WHY DO CLOCKS RUN CLOCKWISE? / 235

Frustables

or

The Ten “Most Wanted” Imponderables

There comes a time in any writer’s life when he must share with his readers his innermost torments, his doubts, his fears. We have no shame in baring our soul and admitting what has kept us from realizing our hopes and dreams: the scourge of Frustrables (i.e., Frustrating Imponderables). These are Imponderables for which we could not find a definitive answer; or those for which we could find an answer that we were almost sure was true, but could not confirm.

A reward of a free copy of the next volume of
Imponderables
will be given to the first reader who can lead to the proof that solves any of these Frustrables.

FRUSTRABLE 1:
Why Do You So Often See One Shoe

Lying on the Side of the Road?

Since we initially researched this Imponderable for our first book, we have spoken to countless officials at the Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Safety Traffic Administration. We have observed that Rich Hall devoted an entire chapter to the subject in his
Vanishing America
book without really answering the question.

We have even found out that there was another soul brave enough to tackle the subject, Elaine Viets, columnist for the St. Louis
Post
Dispatch
. She devoted two columns to this Frustrable. In her first column, she advanced several plausible theories:

• They are tossed out of cars during fights among kids.

• They fall out of garbage trucks.

• Both shoes in a pair are abandoned, but one rolls away.