Are Lobsters Ambidextrous? (25 page)

The blade of a can opener is far from dull, but it need not be as sharp as a scalpel to open cans. As Marilyn Myers, of Norelco Consumer Products, put it, “The metal in the opener is made of sturdier stuff than the can it opens.”

Just as important, the blade has a lot of help in opening the can. Liz Wentland, of Sunbeam-Oster, explains that pressure is exerted on the blade by the can opener lever to drive it into the can. Once the drive wheel of the can opener pushes the blade through the lid so that the seal is broken, a razor-sharp blade isn’t necessary. On an electric can opener, the drive wheel obtains its power from the motor; on hand models, the crank (and human hands) provides the power.

Myers adds that can opener blades do occasionally need replacement. Why? “Mainly because they get clogged with goo.”

 

Submitted by Patti Willis of Endicott, New York
.

 

Why
do most retail establishments with double doors usually lock one of the two leaves?

In every
Imponderables
book, one chapter becomes an obsession. This time around, we were fixated on solving the double door dilemma, mainly because we face this predicament on a daily basis.

We approach a store. We see double doors in front of us with both leaves closed. Which leaf is locked? Should we try the left or the right? And should we pull? Or should we push? Four possible combinations. Invariably, we succeed. On the fourth try.

We spoke to or received letters from dozens of sources about this Imponderable over the last five years. We heard no consensus and not much sense, either. In despair, we asked trusty researcher Sherry Spitzer to speak to store managers, architects, door manufacturers, and safety inspectors to see if she could make sense out of a confusing assemblage of responses. After many person-hours of work by both of us, all we can report is that while there are many theories to explain why proprietors might lock one leaf of a double door, few of the people who actually
do
lock them could provide a reasonable explanation for their behavior.

Still, we’ll share what we’ve come up with, and pray that an empathic reader will help relieve the pounding sensation in our brain.

First of all, why do stores have double doors in the first place? Local fire codes mandate the minimum width of doors
used as exits in public buildings. Double doors are lighter and more practical than single doors to cover a wide area. Electric sliding doors, one possibility, are extremely expensive, while one wide door would sweep over a tremendous area within and outside of the store, posing the threat of accidents and occupying valuable store space. Double doors also allow for easier movement in and out of the store, particularly if customers are trying to enter while others are trying to exit. Double doors also make it possible to move in furniture or other wide objects if the service entrance is impassable.

What explanations did we hear for closing one of the leaves? Here are the most plausible:

 

1.
Saves energy costs. By opening only one side, stores can retain heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summer
. True, but the savings are minimal, indeed. An individual will not open both sides at once. If a group of people, leaving and/or entering, can’t open both leaves at once, they will keep one open much longer than if they were using both to make their transition. Approximately the same amount of heat/air conditioning would be lost.

2.
The wind can kick up when both leaves are open
. Again, not untrue. A good architect can assure that doors will not buckle with gusts, but wind problems are one of the reasons why double doors are often supplied with deadbolts for one leaf. Vestibules also absorb most of the wind tunnel effect that occasionally occurs.

3.
Prevents shoplifting
. Several store managers claimed that this was the main purpose for locking one leaf. But Jack Schultz, of the National Retail Federation, claimed that this argument is ridiculous on its face. The thief has already entered the store—he or she knows full well which door (s) will be open on the way out.

4.
Crowd control/traffic flow
. You must be kidding. Closing leaves causes congestion at the doorways. Control? Maybe. Flow? No. (Besides, we’ve seen leaves locked in many stores and office buildings without any security or crowd control efforts whatsoever.)

5.
Astragals
. Between 10 and 20 percent of the double doors installed include astragals: metal, rubber, or felt material that cov
ers the gap between the two leaves of the double door. Astragals help keep the elements, notably dirt, smoke, wind, and precipitation, from entering the store, and help preserve conditioned air inside. Astragals also keep potential criminals from sticking a coat hanger or other wedge in between the doors to force entry.

Obviously, a metal astragal is a far more effective deterrent to thieves than softer materials, but it makes life more difficult for the shopkeeper. According to architect David B. Eagan, of Eagan Associates, the astragal is usually placed on the active door. Why? The door with the astragal has to close last so that the two leaves will close appropriately. (If the leaf with the astragal is closed first, the other leaf won’t close all the way.)

If both doors are activated, “coordinating hardware,” usually placed at the top of the door, is necessary to make the leaves close harmoniously. But coordinating hardware is very expensive. The path of least resistance (and least strain on the pocketbook) is to lock one leaf and activate the second leaf only when necessary.

While we are always ready to accept any explanation that hinges on saving money or hard work, most stores don’t have doors with metal astragals (soft astragals don’t require expensive coordinating hardware or one particular leaf to be designated as the active one), so theory number 5 can’t explain this universal condition.

 

Still, we argue that laziness is the dominant motivator in The Case of the Locked Doorleaf. It is easier for store employees to contend with one door than two. Rose Smouse, executive assistant of the National Retail Federation, concurs:

 

There is no standard as to why this second double door is locked. It is, best as we can tell, pure convenience. This second door usually has [flush-bolt] locks that go into the top part of the doorjamb and another one that goes into the floor. Some doors have special locks that open them. These second doors are not convenient or easy to open and, therefore, remain locked.

 

A few off-the-record remarks from store managers and their underlings indicated that the laziness theory has much to commend it.

Judging from our mailbag, most folks wish door policies were more convenient for them, rather than the storekeepers.
National Retail Federation’s Jack Schultz, who once operated-department store giant Bloomingdale’s, calls closing any of the doors to a retail establishment “the most customer-insulting activity a retail establishment can engage in.”

May we include one more, not insignificant point? Closing one leaf may be illegal. Local fire codes ordain the width required of any “means of egress” from an establishment open to the public. If an exit must be six feet wide, can it be counted at that width if one of the two leaves is closed, and the doorway is effectively only three feet wide?

We spoke to Bruce W. Hisley, program chair of the Fire Prevention Technical Program Series at the National Fire Academy, who informed us that although there is no single national standard for such matters, virtually all localities require that doors identified as exits must be open when the building is occupied. The question remains: Does that mean both leaves of the door or only one?

In practice, many stores meet fire codes by installing double doors that the fire department assumes will stay open during business hours. They are committing a code violation by closing one leaf. But until localities hire many more inspectors, we’ll all have to play the “guess which door” game a little longer.

 

Submitted by Paul Dunn of Morton, Illinois. Thanks also to Douglas Watkins, Jr., of Hayward, California; Jean Harmon of Silver Spring, Maryland; John V. Dixon of Wilmette, Illinois; Thomas Schoeck of Slingerlands, New York; Nancy Stairs of Revelstoke, British Columbia; Frank P. Burger of Nashville, Tennessee; Nelson T. Sparks of Louisa, Kentucky; and Ralph Kaden of New Haven, Connecticut
.

 

In
large enclosed shopping malls, why is the last door on both sides of the main entrance often closed?

The answer once again is, of course, laziness. Mark Weitzman posed this Imponderable in 1987, and ever since we’ve sought
the solution, we have met with obfuscation worthy of politicians and beauty pageant contestants.

Fire codes mandate wide exits for malls. We’ve seen many with eight sets of double doors side by side. Barring an emergency, the main entrance/exit is rarely congested. Too often, security personnel at malls find it more convenient to not unlock some doors (usually the doors on the far left and right), so as not to have to lock them up again later. Some mall employees have tried to convince us that outer doors are closed to conserve energy or for security reasons, but the explanations ring hollow for the same reasons as they did in the last entry.

Our friend at the National Fire Academy, Bruce Hisley, told
Imponderables
that when he was a fire marshall, he often found that all but one set of a local mall’s doors were locked shortly before closing time, in clear violation of fire codes. A little investigation yielded the discovery that this was the employees’ less than subtle method of deterring customers from going into the mall at the last minute. Anyone who has ever entered a restaurant five minutes before the stated closing time and received less than stellar service will comprehend the operative mentality.

 

Submitted by Mark Weitzman of Boulder, Colorado
.

 

Why
are there two red stripes around the thinnest part of bowling pins?

Their sole purpose, according to Al Vanderneck, of the American Bowling Congress, is to look pretty. Part of Vanderneck’s job is to check the specifications of bowling equipment, and he reports that without the stripes, the pins “just look funny.” The area where the stripes are placed is known as the “neck,” and evidently a naked neck on a bowling pin stands out as much as a tieless neck on a tuxedo wearer.

Actually, we almost blew the answer to this Imponderable.
We’ve thrown a few turkeys in our time, and we always identified the red stripes with AMF pins; the other major manufacturer of bowling pins, Brunswick, used a red crown as an identification mark on its pins. So we assumed that the red stripes were a trademark of AMF’s.

AMF’s product manager Ron Pominville quickly disabused us of our theory. Brunswick’s pins have always had stripes, too, and Brunswick has eliminated the red crown in their current line of pins. A third and growing presence in pindom, Vulcan, also includes stripes on their products.

We haven’t been able to confirm two items: Who started the practice of striping the necks of bowling pins? And exactly what is so aesthetically pleasing about these two thin strips of crimson applied to battered, ivory-colored pins?

 

Submitted by Michael Alden of Rochester Hills, Michigan. Thanks also to Ken Shafer of Traverse City, Michigan
.

 

Does
catnip “work” on big cats like lions and tigers?

Catnip (or
Nepeta cataria
, as scientists so eloquently call it) is a perennial herb that drives many house cats wild with delight. It was probably first noticed as an attractant when big cats swarmed around withered or bruised plants growing in the wild.

A full response to catnip involves four separate actions, usually in this order:

1. 1.
   Sniffing
   
2. 2.
   Licking and chewing with head shaking
   
3. 3.
   Chin and cheek rubbing
   
4. 4.
   Head-over rolling and body rubbing
   

The full cycle usually lasts under fifteen minutes. Some cats will also vocalize after the head-over rolling, presumably a response to hallucinations. Although the cats exposed to catnip mimic their behavior when in heat, catnip does not increase sexual interest or activity and doesn’t seem to affect cats in heat more perceptibly.