Pointless Questions...with Aaron Mucciolo

Ever notice that when the sun comes out, and the weather warms up, and the birds start chirping, and the flowers growing, it’s almost impossible not to smile and relax a bit? I’d ask myself the question ‘Why is that?’ but I think some things are better left unexamined…
I should write for Hallmark, instead of spending my afternoons hunting down answers to questions like these:

Why is it that your nose (or my nose, anyway) starts to run when it’s cold outside? Or even worse, right after I come into a warm building from a snowy day? –Katie Shilton, college junior

“It’s called vasomotor rhinitis,” says Laura Hieronymus, Oberlin’s Health Service Director. “That is a fancy name for the blood vessels expanding and contracting in response to temperature changes which causes mucus in your nose to be produced.”
Rhinitis is an inflammation of the nose (“rhin” means nose. Think rhinoceros) and can come in three flavors: infectious (colds), allergic, and vasomotor. Allergic rhinitis can be seasonal if you’re allergic to pollens, or year-round if dust or molds get to you. Vasomotor rhinitis is considered by some to cover every other case of stuffy or runny noses when colds or allergies can’t account for the symptoms. The blood vessels (hence the ‘vaso’, meaning vein) in the nose swell up for a variety of reasons including temperature changes, stress or anger, and even sensitivity to certain odors.
Sadly, it looks like you’ll just have to keep wiping your nose during the winter since antihistamines tend not to work well. “It is annoying but not really considered a health problem,” adds Hieronymus.

Last week you talked about the two rocks in Tappan Square. There are three. What about the third one? –Dave Karpf, college senior

That one (across from King) doesn’t have a plaque on it and was therefore not included in the question as it concerned the plaques on the rocks.
Pedant.

I was wondering why some airplanes make jet trails and others do not. Any ideas? –Susan Powell, college junior

Plenty. But my theories about it all just being a capitalist plot will have to wait. Here’s someone who actually knows something:
“Vapor trails depend an awful lot on the basic temperature of the altitude, the humidity, and the heat of the engine of the plane,” says Bob Dreesen, a researcher at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum Library.
“It’s a pretty universal phenomenon,” Dressen adds. “Even prop [propeller] planes can create vapor trails.” He mentions that during World War II, Spitfire planes, and even big, slower moving bombers like the B-17 and B-24, operating at high altitudes, would create vapor trails in the cold air over Germany during the winter. Pretty much all that’s required is a hot enough engine.

What does ‘Sinn Fein’ mean?

Sinn Fein (pronounced shin fay-n) is a political party in Northern Ireland, UK, dedicated to Irish people’s self-determination. The name comes from an Irish Gaelic expression meaning ‘we ourselves’ or sometimes translated as ‘ourselves alone’ and ostensibly refers to their goal of removing British control of the region.

If someone was sick, with a cold, let’s say, and had a sore throat, wouldn’t drinking alcohol improve one’s health because it would kill all the nasty bacteria in his or her throat? –Allison Moon, college junior

Back to Ms. Hieronymus for this one: “When you are infected with a virus such as cold or flu it is really a systemic infection, the virus is in the sinuses, the lungs, and actually ‘in’ the tissues of the throat. Therefore a quick exposure to alcohol in the throat cannot kill the viruses that are making you sick.”
And here I was planning on seeing if Robitussin goes well with tequila.


By the way, several people mentioned an inaccuracy in my last column. The rocks in Tappan Square were actually stripped clean of paint last Commencement, so they were not ‘unreadable for the last 40 years’ as I joked. Thanks to Tom Simchak for pointing that out first.

Spring has sprung, the grass has riz. Now send me some questions dangit. Otherwise I’ll sing. I mean it. Email aaron.mucciolo@oberlin.edu or write to Pointless Questions, c/o The Oberlin Review, Wilder Box 90, Oberlin OH, 44074. Your name will be used only with your permission.