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[History Buff]

Use this thread to post questions you've always wondered about.  Of course, if you know an answer, please post that, too.

Like this one:  who is the guy who makes the loudspeaker announcements on M*A*S*H?  It's not Radar or Klinger; they're often in a scene when an announcement comes across.  So who is it?

[marolinesdad]

To answer your question: 

Sal Viscuso and Todd Susman played the camp's anonymous P.A. system announcer throughout the series. This unseen character broke the fourth wall only once, in the episode "Welcome to Korea" (4.1) when introducing the regular cast members. Normally he just tells the camp about the incoming wounded with a sense of humour. Both Viscuso and Susman appeared onscreen as other characters in at least one episode each.

[History Buff]

Thanks.  I just found the answer on IMBD, as well.  Ain't this interweb net thang kewl!  Here what they said to add to your answers:

Todd Sussman appeared in only one episode of _"M*A*S*H" (1974) {Operation Noselift (#2.18)}_; however, he was the voice of the PA system in many episodes. Sussman was one of three "unseen" PA announcers. Early on in the series, actor Jimmy Lydon did many announcements. Then there's Todd Sussman and later on, Sal Viscuso made announcements. Viscuso also appeared in 2 episodes. Sussman made more announcements later on as well.

Anyone else have a question?

[SteamFreak]

How DO they pack so much cheesy taste into a cheez-it?

[rubedugans]

Cheez-It crackers are an American snack food manufactured by the Kellogg Company. They are roughly 26 by 24 mm (1.0 by 0.95 inch) square-shaped crackers made with wheat flour, vegetable oil, sharp yellow cheese, salt, and spices. The color comes from oleoresin (a plant derivative) According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office trademark records, the first "Cheez-It" Cheese Crackers were sold by Green & Green Company of Dayton, Ohio in May of 1921. After the stock market crash, The Green & Green Company was acquired by The Sunshine Biscuit Company, founded in 1902 as the Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company. The Keebler Company acquired Sunshine in 1996, and Keebler was in turn acquired by Kellogg in 2001. Cheez-It crackers are still sold under the Sunshine label. So how do they pack that much cheese flavor in...chemicals, well that and magic of course. Maybe Peter Gossamer or Kirby VanBurch would know.

[sdcforever]

Don't we love Wikipedia?

[rubedugans]

Heck yah we do! I get so used to checking it for my students to check their plagiarism that I end up using it now and again to check simple things, locations dates etc., and well this time I found nothing about cheez-its anywhere else!

My question is why DO doctors wear white coats?
(and no there is no punchline that I am aware of)

[History Buff]

^My wife thinks it is because stains are more easily bleached.

[SteamFreak]

Well that's a good answer...never thought of it that way.

[sdcforever]

Again, from Wikipedia.

"White coats are sometimes seen as the distinctive dress of physicians, who have worn them for over 100 years. In the nineteenth century, respect for the certainty of science was in stark contrast to the quackery and mysticism of nineteenth century medicine. To emphasize the transition to the more scientific approach to modern medicine, physicians sought to represent themselves as scientists, and began to wear the most recognizable symbol of the scientist, the white laboratory coat."

Also, your wife is right too, History Buff.  "The garment is made from white or light-colored cotton, linen, or cotton polyester blend, allowing it to be washed at high temperature and make it easy to see if it is clean."

[Zephon]

Here's a question I used to ask prospective little deputies back in the day, just to see if they were qualified.  Some of them were stumped, others came up with some pretty clever answers.

What color is red?

[Zephon]

Hmmm.  After posting in another thread and using a familiar phrase, I got to wondering...what is the origin of the phrase:  "by the skin of your/our teeth?"  Teeth don't have skin.

[Joy]

Here's the first answer that came up on Google. Very interesting. Had no idea that phrase was in the Bible!

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/83000.html

[Zephon]

^WOW!  And the book of Job no less, probably the oldest book in the Bible.  That phrase has been around a looooong time.


As for the "red" question, technically the answer would be.... any of a number of similar colors evoked by light consisting predominantly of the longest wavelengths of light discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength range of roughly 625–740 nm.

When kids would answer, most would point to someone's T-shirt, or say it's the color of an apple.

[SteamFreak]

Ha, Zephon, you can tell you've worked around stage lighting.