Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 4, 1995 TAG: 9506070008
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: D-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Cox News Service
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A: To make a contribution to the Conscience Fund - or to reduce the U.S. debt in general - make your check out to the U.S. Treasury and send to: Department of the Treasury, Financial Management Service, Prince George Center Building II, Program Accounting Section, Credit Accounting Branch, Room 6D37, 3700 East-West Highway, Hyattsville, Md. 20782. The fund was established in 1811 to accept contributions given to the government by individuals ``who feel a need to clear their conscience,'' in the words of the agency. The largest annual total to the fund came in 1986, when $380,929.49 was donated.
Another way to contribute to reducing the debt is to make your check out to the U.S. Treasury and mail it to: Department of the Treasury, Bureau of Public Debt, Department G, 13th & C streets S.W., Washington, D.C. 20239.
Q: What is the origin of: ``We have met the enemy and it is us.''
A: The late cartoonist Walt Kelly used it in a ``Pogo'' comic strip in 1971. It apparently was a play on a dispatch sent by Oliver Hazard Perry to Gen. William Henry Harrison announcing his victory at the battle of Lake Erie on Sept. 10, 1813. Sent from the U.S. brig Niagara, it said: ``We have met the enemy, and they are ours.''
Q: When did the Dow Jones industrial average begin? What is it made up of? Is it consistent?
A: The first stock index was devised by Charles Henry Dow, the first editor of The Wall Street Journal and a co-founder (in 1882) of Dow Jones & Co. He made a list of 11 stocks: nine railroads and two industrials. He added the closing prices of the 11 stocks, divided the total by 11 and produced a stock market average that was first published on July 3, 1884. Dow experimented with different lists of stocks to develop an average containing only industrial stocks. On May 26, 1896, he published the first industrial stock average, made up of 12 companies. Over the years the companies have been changed, and they now total 30, not all of them industrials. It took the Dow Jones industrial average 88 years to reach 1,000, 15 more years to hit 2,000, five more years to top 3,000 and four more to reach 4,000.
Q: Where did the saying ``Mind your P's and Q's'' come from?
A: Several explanations are possible. The most colorful is that it's an expression from the 16th and 17th centuries, when British tavern keepers kept drinkers' tabs chalked on a blackboard under two headings: P for pint, Q for quart. Another story is that teachers instructing children how to write the alphabet reminded them to be careful when writing a p or a q, because they're so similar to each other and might easily be confused.
Q: What does the ``eighty-six it'' mean?
A: If you're in a bar and you hear a waiter whisper to the bartender to ``86'' someone, that means to serve no more because of the shape the customer is in. Why it's 86 instead of 1 or 100 or anything else is anybody's guess. Originally, according to the American Thesaurus of Slang, ``86'' was a password used between soda fountain clerks to indicate that they were all out of the item ordered. In the 1920s, number codes were fairly extensive among workers at soda fountains. The head fountain manager was 99; the assistant manager was 98; 33 meant a cherry- flavored Coca-Cola; 55 stood for root beer; and 19 was a banana split.
Q: They aren't in the news any more, but during the Cold War era we always heard about the Eastern Bloc's MQ: Who were Ginger Rogers' five husbands, and what were MiG jets. What is the origin of the name?
A: The acronym comes from combining letters from the names of the two inventors of the Russian fighter planes: Mikoyan and Gurevitch. It's variously written MiG, Mig or MIG.
Q: Photos of Secret Service personnel investigating the recent White House incident showed them wearing jackets with the initials TSD on the back. What does that stand for? And what branch of government is the Secret Service part of?
A: The officers are members of the Technical Security Division. The Secret Service comes under the Treasury Department.
Q: An article about actor-director Paul Michael Glaser's efforts on behalf of AIDS research mentioned the Pediatric AIDS Foundation, started by his late wife, Elizabeth. How can I show my support?
A: Write or call: Pediatric AIDS Foundation, 1311 Colorado Ave., Santa Monica, Calif. 90404; 310-395-9051. Donations are welcomed. You're certain to be hearing more about the foundation's work. Glaser went to the White House recently to launch a public service announcement campaign on behalf of the foundation. The campaign, opened by Hillary Clinton, will continue for three years. . .
Q: What's the difference between a rain forest and a plain forest?
A: Because it's part of the name, you might conclude that rain would be the only difference. But warmth and tree types are factors. Tropical rain forests grow near the equator, which accounts for both high temperatures and moisture. The world's forests are divided into five or six major formations, none of which is known simply as ``forest.'' The others are tropical seasonal, temperate deciduous, temperate evergreen and boreal. Some scientists include areas of widely spaced trees known as savannas, which would be the sixth; others classify savannas as grasslands. In a tropical rain forest, as many as 100 species of trees may grow in a square mile of land.
Q: Why are gasoline prices increasing? If Middle East oil companies are raising prices, can't we obtain oil from Mexico?
A: The price you pay at your neighborhood service station has nothing to do with the Middle East. And importing oil from Mexico would do nothing to lower prices. ``The one thing that does not affect prices is where we get our oil,'' said Cheryl J. Trench, executive vice president of the Petroleum Industry Research Foundation in New York. ``There is only one global market and there is one world price, after taking into account quality differentials.''
The combination of increased demand and reduced fuel stocks is the main reason for increasing prices, Trench said. Other factors: the introduction of more costly reformulated gasoline in nearly one-third of all U.S. markets (not including Georgia) and increased costs associated with maintenance of refineries and refinery shutdowns in Louisiana after recent flooding.
Q: Who were Ginger Rogers' five husbands, and what were their occupations?
A: Edward Jackson Culpepper, a dancer with whom she performed on the vaudeville circuit in a team known as Ginger and Pepper, was No. 1; they were married from 1928 to 1931. The others: actor Lew Ayres (1934-40), actor Jack Briggs (1943-49), French actor and businessman Jacques Bergerac (1953-57) and director-producer G. William Marshall (1961-67). All marriages ended in divorce.
by CNB