Stump Adam
FACT: The answer to any question can
be found online. It turns out this
isn’t exactly a fact. This was a hard
lesson for Adam to learn but he still maintains that he can at the very least
come up with the answer to just about anything. If you don’t believe it, give
him a question and try to Stump Adam.
Step right up and give it a try, I
will take on any question you might have, I don’t guarantee that I will find
you an answer but I promise I will sure as hell try. Send in your questions, any subject, I’ll even take on rhetorical
questions, send them on in world and I will give you an answer.
Was the
crying Indian in those old “Don’t Pollute” PSA’s actually Indian?
Iron Eyes Cody you might recognize from his
other famous role in Ernest Goes to
Camp but most people recognize him from his famous Keep America
Beautiful public service announcement.
So is he Indian? Well sort
of. His real name is Espera De Corti and he was born in Kaplan, Louisiana to Sicilian
immigrents. So by birth no he is not an
Indian. However, he claimed to be part
Cherokee and part Cree. Cody and his
wife adopted Native American Children as well.
In 1996, 3 years before his death, a Lousiana newspaper reported his
Sicilian hertitage and he denied it. So
basically was he an actual true-born Native American, no. Oh and his famous tear wasn’t real either it
was glycerin. Sorry to ruin it for
you. (Source: Wikipedia
and Snopes)
How many
calories are in an apple? (Mother submitted question)
A medium sized apple contains roughly 80 calories. (Source: Diet
Bites)
In the NHL,
if a player on the penalty kill shoots the puck down the ice with only a second
left will it be icing?
I am not 100% sure on this one, surprisingly so
if you have a definite answer please let me know. Here is how I interpret the NHL Rulebook though. Rule 65 is the rule pertaining to
Icing. I feel that the answer is in
Rule 65: Part C, Note 1, which states “If the team returns to full strength
following a shot by one of its players, play shall continue and the face-off
shall not take place.” To me this
basically means that at the close of a penalty with 1 second left a short
handed player can shoot a puck down the ice without the fear of icing, even if
the puck takes a few seconds to get down there. Let me know if you have a different opinion. (Source: NHL Rulebook)
If the
police break down your door do they have to pay for it?
The police are given quite a bit of liberties
when it comes to the execution of a search warrant. As long as they are acting in “good faith” then no they do not
have to pay for your door. This is of
course under the assumption that you are guilty, if this were a case of
mistaken identity or pretty much gross negligence on behalf of the cops, then
they still won’t pay you. You would in
fact have to hire a lawyer to get your money back and in truth that would
probably cost more than your door. On
top of this your Home Owners Insurance should cover this “problem.” The real question here is if the police have
just knocked your door down, is a replacement door really your biggest
problem? (Source: Too many
sites to list, if you think I am wrong here, email
me with more info)
Why can’t
liquor freeze?
Actually it can but not in your freezer. Liquor or Alcohol can be frozen but at a much lower temperature
than we are use to. Alcohol contains
ethanol, which can only freeze at –114 degrees Celsius. So you really don’t need to worry about that
bottle of vodka you have had in your freezer for a year now, but why haven’t
you drank it? (Source: Culinary
Forum)
Does the
President of the United States have to pay taxes?
Of course he does, everyone has to, even
Richard from Survivor. According to the
White House, which is always right, the Bush’s paid $207,307 in Federal Income
Taxes last year, they grossed nearly $800,000 and claimed just over $111,000 in
deductions bringing their total income to $672,788. On top of that, they went over so they got a return of around
$38,500. Not as much as you thought was
it, but think of the benefits of being the leader of the free world. (Source: H&R
Block)
Where is
Kampuchea? (Reader
Submitted Question)
The nation of Kampuchea no longer exists; it is
located in what is now Cambodia. (Source: Wikipedia)
When will
you get a “real job”? (Parents
Submitted Question)
Hopefully soon. (If anyone knows of a “real job” that I
could get, please send me info here)
My mom made
killer brownies that are pretty much the unhealthiest thing ever created, they
have 3 sticks of butter in them amongst other things. Apparently there are 330 calories in each brownie, how many can I
eat in a day without exceeding the recommended calorie intake per day?
Well since there is no specific calorie
quantity that everyone should go by, I had to do some math to find out how many
calories I should be eating in a given day.
After doing all of the appropriate math I discovered that for me to not
really gain weight and keep my current unhealthy lifestyle I could eat an
impressive 2518.175 calories per day.
This is actually quite disgusting and very unhealthy; nonetheless, that
amount divided by 330 calories per brownie equals 7.63083. Meaning I could eat roughly speaking 7 and a
half of my mom’s brownies in any given day if I eat and drink nothing
else. I think I am going to be sick,
excuse me . . . (Source: About.com
and my impressive 5th grade math skills)
I live and
work in Chicago; a city with some of the most amazing architecture in the
world. I work at 401 N. Michigan Ave.
also known as the Equitable building.
It is not at all amazing; in fact I think it is rather ugly and
boring. What year was my building built
and who the hell designed this piece of crap? (Co-host Submitted Question)
The Equitable building actually has quite the
history behind it. The site it is
located at was the site where Jean Baptiste Du Sable built the first permanent
settlers cabin back when Chicago was first being discovered. It was then where Cyrus McCormick invented
the reaper. Once it was destroyed in
the Great Chicago Fire, the site was to be made into a parking lot until
Equitable Insurance got a hold of the land.
They made the great Equitable building as it now stands, under the
conditions that it was to be no taller than the Tribune Tower and it had to be
set back from Michigan Ave. so the view would not be obstructed. To answer the actual question though, the
construction process was completed in 1966 and it was built under designer
Bruce Graham’s specifications under the leadership of the Skidmore, Owings
& Merrill LLC architecture firm. (Source: Emporis
and Chief
Engineer)
What is the
name of the song that plays during many Looney Tunes cartoons when the
characters are in factories, near machinery, or are on conveyor belts? (Reader Submitted Question)
The song is called Powerhouse and it was made by Raymond
Scott. This song has been used in
several other places including WNYO’s Jerk’s on Parade morning show’s opening
theme. Here are two samples of the
song: Clip 1
and Clip 2
(Source: Wikipedia)
Why is the
NHL schedule so confusing, why the hell do we play some teams a million times
and other teams never? (Reader
Submitted Question)
Well basically the NHL scheduling system does
suck. Here’s how it works. The NHL is broken up into 2 conferences the
East and the West. Each of these
contains 15 teams. Each conference is
then broken down into 3 divisions each of which has 5 teams in it. Now the way the schedule works is like this,
you play each team in your division 8 times, so that is 8 games against each of
the 4 other teams, for a total of 32 games.
Then you also play the other 10 teams in your conference 4 times each,
for a total of 40 games, which brings us to 72. The remaining 10 games are accounted for by playing all of the
teams in 2 of the 3 divisions from your opposing conference once each, and that
brings you up to 82, 1 full NHL season.
Let me try to make this easier, pretend this is the NHL:
Eastern
Conference: Division A teams:
1,2,3,4,5
Division B
teams: 6,7,8,9,10
Division C
teams: 11,12,13,14,15
Western
Conference: Division D teams:
16,17,18,19,20
Division E
teams: 21,22,23,24,25
Division F
teams: 26,27,28,29,30
OK
if you are team #1, you will play teams 2,3,4, and 5 each 8 times. You will then play teams
6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14, and 15 each 4 times.
Finally you will play teams 16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24, and 25 once each
for a total of 82 games. (Source: Wikipedia)
What do you
call a person from Brussels? (User
Submitted Question)
Well the cop out answer here is of course
Belgian. However the correct answer to
this question is Brusseleers.
(Source: Wikipedia)
Are there
any good jobs available in Buffalo, NY?
No (Source: Me, If you think I am wrong, and have a good job in Buffalo for
me you can email me here)
What does
the “K” in Kmart stand for?
Well it stand of course for the founder’s
name. Sebastian
Spering Kresge had a few other stores before he opened the S.S. Kresge chain of
store which later became known as Kmart.
(Source: Wikipedia)
What were
Scooby Snacks really made of? (User
Submitted Question)
Today Scooby Snacks are made from a lot of
different things. There is a drink
called the Scooby Snack, a late-night treat in Glasgow, several cookies, a dog
treat, chips, a protein fix, and of course several drugs. But the key word in this question is
“were.” What “were” they made of when
the cartoon was actually in production?
Well according to producer William Hanna, they tasted like some sort of
caramel-flavored cookie. This is of
course why he had the snacks colored brown.
(Source: Wikipedia)
If you are
trying to prove Murphy’s Law, will something keep going wrong?
The simple answer to this question is yes. Although it is widely disputed how the Law
came to mean what it does today and who first coined the term, the Law
none-the-less states in some variation “If something can go wrong, it will go
wrong.” Due to this, anyone trying to
prove that things will go wrong will of course run into several things that
will go wrong. While proving the Law,
things will go wrong and this will thusly prove Murphy’s Law. (Source:
Wikipedia)
What color
underwear is BJ(my
brother-in-law) wearing today (January 30, 2007)? (User Submitted
Question)
When this question came in, I thought of all of
the possible ways I could answer it.
Sadly BJ does not post online what color underwear he puts on everyday,
although it should be noted some people on the Internet do, it’s scary don’t
search for it. This route would not
lead me to an answer. My sister and
brother-in-law live in Phoenix, Arizona as opposed to my Buffalo, New York,
this made pantsing him quite useless since I don’t have a 3000-mile reach. The next solution, call someone who would
know the answer. Who would know the
answer though? The only 2 people I
would hope would know the answer are my sister and brother-in-law. This poses a bit of a dilemma since they
asked the question. Final possibility,
lucky guess. I called and guessed
blue. Sadly I was wrong, the correct
answer was gray and we still cannot confirm (nor do we want to) whether or not
they came with brown streaks in them.
Which came
first the chicken or the egg?
This question has been debated for years. I will try to make this short and sweet but
I know that’s not going to work. This
question fundamentally relies on what you believe in. If you are a creationist, or someone that’s religious, you
probably believe that God created the chicken, which in turn laid the first
egg. If you are an evolutionist, or a
science dork, you probably believe that the chicken evolved from another
chicken-like animal, which laid eggs and must’ve been hatched before it could
be a chicken so the egg came first.
These are the two main theories held by people to answer this
question. They are not however the only
two. The riddle never suggests where
the chicken and egg are. Hence we don’t
know where we need to look to see which came first. If you were reading a dictionary for instance, ‘C’ would come
before ‘E’ so the Chicken would win. If
you were doing a letter count then the Eggs 3 letters would lose to the
Chickens 7. I think my favorite answer
has to be the one based on something we all believe in the United States Postal
Service. The website below explains the
experiment in detail but basically someone mailed both a chicken and an egg
through the USPS and surveyed the results.
Upon being mailed from the same location at the same time to the same
location, the chicken arrived roughly 11 hours before the egg. This is the best answer I can give you; I am
agreeing with the most researched answer available, the chicken came first. (Source:
Improbable
Research)
What’s the
difference between Jam, Jelly, Preserves, and Marmalade?
Simply put: Jelly has no fruit pieces, Jam has finely chopped or
pureed pieces of fruit, Preserves has fruit in it, and Marmalade is mainly
citrus fruits and has large pieces of fruit and rind suspended in it. (Source:
Do
Fish Drink Water?)
Why do
drive-up ATM’s have Braille dots on the buttons?
The answer is because our government is
stupid. “To be specific, section 4.34.4
of the ADA Accessibility Guidelines for Buildings and Facilities
(Appendix to Part 1191, 36 CFR Chapter XI, issued pursuant to the Americans
with Disabilities Act of 1990) says, "Instructions and all information for
use [of an automated teller machine] shall be made accessible to and
independently usable by persons with vision impairments." Drive-up ATMs,
unlike the walk-up variety, don't need to be wheelchair accessible, but the
rules make no exception regarding accessibility by the blind.” We are so smart. (Source: The Straight
Dope)
What was
the best thing before sliced bread?
This started basically as a 1930s ad campaign
for Wonder Bread, which was the first company to sell sliced bread on a
national scale. This question is tough
to answer due to the timeline that the question states. Right now in 2007 I have an easy time making
the claim that “whatever” is the greatest thing since sliced bread, however in
the early 1900s I could not make this claim since sliced bread hadn’t been
invented yet. The problem is would my
answer in 1900 be the same as it would be in 1800 or even 1700? What about 950? Now that you see where the problem falls I guess to answer this
question we need to find out what the first history changing invention was
prior to 1928. The reason for this is
because if just for example we say that it was the automobile (1885) then what
would the answer have been in 1884? So
what was the first monumental invention?
Some might say the wheel and axel in 5th millennium BC
Mesopotamia, I’m going to have to disagree, as tough as it would be to imagine
we could live without them. I will make
my answer fire. Without fire, there
would be no heat and thus no cooking, without fire you couldn’t even bake bread
to slice it in the first place. Fire
led to the inventions of light, electricity, power, cars and computers. Without fire this website wouldn’t be
possible. This website mid you is the
greatest thing since sliced bread, no scratch that, since fire. (Sources:
Wikipedia
and Wikipedia)
If corn oil
comes from corn, where does baby oil come from?
Baby oil isn’t always called Baby oil. In fact in most places it is called Mineral Oil. It is actually a by-product of distilling
petroleum to make gasoline. It is used
for a ton of other things besides buttering up your toddlers ass. (Source:
Wikipedia)
Why are
there interstate highways in Hawaii?
While the term implies that interstate highways
cross state lines, this is not the case.
The real definition is where the money for these federally funded
highways comes from, which is from you the taxpayer, or on a broader scale the
money comes from every state. Hence all
federally funded highways are interstate highways, which is why Hawaii’s major
cities have an interstate highway connecting them. (Source: Wikipedia)
Where did
junk food get its name?
Junk food is of course the slang term for food
that is pretty much garbage for your body.
Some say the term was coined by Michael Jacobson, director of the Center
for Science in the Public Interest in 1972, others however, believe it came
from the Dutch word jonket. These
were dried fish and salted meat rations fed to sailors on long voyages. (Sources:
Wikipedia
and Uncle
John’s Bathroom Reader)
What is
lake effect snow?
This one goes out to everyone who doesn’t live in Western New York,
if that’s you feel free to read on or consult anyone who has lived there, trust
me, they know. Lake effect snow is the
type of snow that is produced when very cold dry air blows (usually hard and
fast) across a large, warm body of water; say Lake Erie or Ontario for
example. This does happen outside of
Western and Central New York, but the phenomenon is basically famous in these
areas. Don’t believe me come visit
sometime, I’ll show you what 6 feet of snow looks like. (Source:
Wikipedia)
Who Framed
Roger Rabbit?
What a horribly fantastic movie. Roger Rabbit was framed by Judge Doom who is
actually a toon. Judge Doom was
responsible for the murders of R.K. Maroon, Marvin Acme, and Detective Eddie
Valiant’s brother Teddy. The better
question though, is it true that there is a scene where Jessica Rabbit’s crotch
is visible? Yes there is, although you may have a hard time finding it since
Disney found out and recalled all of the laserdisc’s and reissued another
one. There are some circulating though,
you might even be able to see it if you have a VHS still, remember those? (Source:
Wikipedia)
Who
invented the Stapler?
This question is way more complex than it
sounds. It’s a really long story and
since I know nobody wants to hear it, I’ll do my best to sum it up. The first ever stapler/fastener type thing
was created in 18th century France for King Louis XIV. This isn’t really a stapler as we know it
today though, so lets skip ahead to 1841.
On September 30th Samuel Slocum was granted a patent for the
first ever paper fastener. His patent
though was actually a paper that pins could be stuck into for the purposes of
shipping pins, not holding the paper together.
Jumping forward to 1866 the Novelty Paper Fastener was patented by
Patent Novelty Mfg. Co. It was
basically a machine that was single-staple loaded and could bind together
paper, books, furniture, boxes and carpet.
The same year George W. McGill was awarded the patent for a bendable
brass paper fastener which he would revise and patent several more times
throughout the rest of his life to make him the inventor of the modern day
stapler. (Source: Wikipedia)
What are
the 8 vegetables in V8?
Finally I get a simple question to answer. The 8 vegetables in the Campbell’s drink are
Tomatoes, Beets, Carrots, Lettuce, Celery, Watercress, Spinach and
Parsley. It tastes better with some
vodka, hot sauce, pepper, celery salt, maybe a little horseradish, how hot do
you like your bloody mary’s? (Source: Wikipedia)
Where’s the
Beef?
This was of course Wendy’s most popular
commercial series ever. The commercial
was originally titles “Fluffy Bun,” but was made an instant sensation by the
legendary Clara Peller. A sweet elderly
woman from Chicago nailed her line in the commercial yelling, “Where’s the
beef?” So where is the Beef? Well I guess the cop out answer would of
course be Wendy’s. But I am not going
to pick them since Clara never stated that Wendy’s did in fact have the
beef. She did however get fired from
Wendy’s for claiming in a Prego ad, “I’ve found it, I’ve finally found
it.” So I will say Prego is a good
answer, but the real beef behind this great question is Clara who sadly died at
the age of 85 in August of 1987 she is buried in Chicago at Jewish Waldheim
Cemetary, sadly that’s where the beef really is. (Source: Wikipedia)
What is
Bono’s Real Name?
The rock genius/humanitarian/poser/ freak known
as Bono was born and raised Paul David
Hewson on May 10th 1960 in Dublin, Ireland. Growing up Bono and friends were part of a
street gang that gave out nickname to members.
He started as “Steinvic Von Huyseman” then just “Huyseman”, then
“Houseman”, then “Bon Murray”, “Bono Vox of O’Connell Street”, finally
“Bono.” Apparently this gang also
changed everyone nicknames on a weekly basis.
Anyways, “Bono Vox” is an alteration of Bonavox, which is a brand of
hearing aid, he originally hated the name but once he found out it was Latin for
“Good Voice” he decided to keep it. (Source:
Wikipedia)
Why do
beans give you gas?
OK without getting to graphic here, Beans
contain high percentages of sugars that our bodies are unable to digest, when
these sugars get to our intestines, bacteria goes to town on them and this
produces large amounts of gas. It
should be noted that its not just beans that do this, many other vegetables are
big fart producers as well, including but not limited to: broccoli, brussels
sprouts, cabbage, apples, radishes, onions and cucumbers. Enjoy your salad. (Source: Why
Do Men Have Nipples?)
Where in
the World is Carmen Sandiego?
This is a tough one, I thought I would be able
to find an answer online but apparently nobody knows the whereabouts of the
infamous villain Carmen Sandiego.
Here’s what I can tell you, according to the lyrics of the theme song,
the last city mentioned is Oahu, Hawaii, USA.
This might not be correct though, in the final episode of the TV show
the last item she had stolen for her was water from the Amazon River, so you
might want to check there. Sometimes
Carmen was voiced by Rita Moreno who lives in New York City, so that’s probably
a good place to look. That’s the best I
can do kids, the real answer though is that you should catch her yourself and
let me know where you found her, you can try to beat it by playing the old
school Apple IIe game right
here. Enjoy.