Caesar reforms Egyptian calendar, cuts Feb. by 2 days

Q. Why does February have only 28 days?

A. Julius Caesar (100-44 B.C.) reformed the Egyptian calendar around 45 B.C., creating 12 months of 30 or 31 days, resulting in 367 days. So February, the last month of the year, was reduced by two days to 28, bringing the new year to its current total of 365 days (from ScienceIllustrated.Com magazine).

Q. Maybe it's not much to brag about, but some people can wiggle their pinnas. Some people can wiggle one pinna, then the other, separately and independently. What's a pinna?

A. It's the big fleshy satellite-dish-like appendage we call an ear, though it's not the "outer ear," which technically terminates at the eardrum.

Actually, the pinna is the least important part of the hearing system, say James R. Cameron et al in "Physics of the Body." "It aids only slightly in funneling sound waves into the canal and can be completely removed with no noticeable loss in hearing, although its removal will not help anyone's appearance. (Those of us who can wiggle our pinnas find its primary use is to entertain children.)"

In some animals, much bigger pinnas do aid in hearing; and for elephants and many desert animals, jumbo ears add skin surface area instrumental in radiating away excess body heat.

Q. From a Latrobe, Penn., reader: "I know people who are quite thin, with little or no body fat. I am plump. When we drink the same amount of beer, they don't feel its effects or get drunk when I do. When they drink liquor, however, the effects seem equal. Why is this?"

A. There's no easy answer, since getting "smashed" is clearly multifaceted, with subjectivity and perception as obvious inputs, says California Polytechnic State University food scientist Brian Hampson. Different drinkers have different genetics, such as enzyme activity (e.g., alcohol dehydrogenase) for the removal of toxins (alcohols). The varying forms of these enzymes have a broad range of ability to detoxify. Some people remove the toxins in what almost seems to be "real time," not getting intoxicated or not staying that way for very long. On the other hand, some people remove the toxins very slowly; thus the Japanese have a phrase, "mitsuka-yoi," which literally translates as "third-day drunk," because for some it takes that long to urinate all the toxins out through the kidneys when the enzymes do not work effectively in the liver.

Beyond genetics, good booze has fewer "bad alcohols," being more pure in ethanol as opposed to methanol and other congeners that get co-distilled during manufacturing. That is why good vodka says on the label it was distilled four times and charcoal filtered. The cheaper stuff is not purified that much, so we drinkers pay with hangovers.

Send questions to Bill and Rich at strangetrue@com. userve.com.