The Straight Dope 12/01/2006

The Straight Dope -- By Cecil Adams
http://www.straightdope.com

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THE STRAIGHT DOPE 12/01/2006

Dear Cecil:

As a kid, I seem to remember reading on the back of a cereal
box about a man who got struck by lightning seven or eight
times during his life, totally at random, with no scientific
explanation as to why this poor soul (the final strike
killed him) was subject to these heavenly barrages. I also
recall that the guy's headstone, by an infinitesimally small
chance, was hit by lightning and obliterated some years
after his death, which is very spooky. He had clearly
annoyed somebody by his mere existence. Could you confirm or
deny this electrifying (sorry) tale?  --Greg, London, UK 

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Cecil replies:

I can confirm about 80 percent of it, putting it 79.9
percent ahead of most of the yarns that cross my desk. No
doubt we can thank the cereal box, where at least you had
somebody from Kellogg's (Weetabix, whoever) keeping things
straight, in contrast to, say, Wikipedia, which is more the
million-monkeys-with-a-million-keyboards approach. First the
accurate 80 percent: the human lightning rod you're thinking
of is Roy Cleveland Sullivan, for most of his life a forest
ranger at Shenandoah National Park, Virginia. He was struck
seven times:

For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/061201.html

STAFF REPORT

Dear Straight Dope:

Why are all craters (on the moon for example) round or close
to it? Were they all formed from an impact at a
perpendicular angle? In all the random collisions in space,
wouldn't we expect some impacts to be at a glancing angle
and so form an elongated crater? Or do even these impacts
form a circular crater? --eltimbo544  

Guest contributor Hydrargyrum replies:

Careful -- while most craters are circular or close to it, a
few aren't. There are oblong craters, stretched-looking
distorted craters, scalloped craters, even square craters.
The reasons for non-circular craters include the degradation
or modification of the crater with age, the material
strength of the target compared to the energy of the impact,
and, yes, the angle of impact.  

Earth is a hugely active planet, with erosion by wind and
water, volcanoes, and tectonic movement working to modify,
subduct, bury, and destroy craters relatively rapidly by
geological standards -- which is to say, over tens to hundreds
of millions of years. The process is different on worlds with no
atmosphere. On the moon, for example, volcanism has had a
role in erasing and degrading craters. The mare on the moon
are enormous impact basins flooded by basaltic lava, erasing
all traces of previous craters. On older surfaces already
saturated with craters, later impacts modify or erase the
traces of earlier ones. Micrometeorites "soften" the sharp
features of craters. Tectonism on airless worlds is uncommon,
but on the icy satellites of Jupiter, viscous relaxation of craters
and tidal forces have modified and erased craters.  

Your intuition that most impacts aren't perpendicular is spot on . . .

For more, see: 
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mcraters.htm


STRAIGHT DOPE CLASSIC - 08/01/1993

Dear Cecil: 

My grandmother was named Margaret. She, and every other
Margaret I know, has the nickname "Peg" or "Peggy." None of
them can tell me how the two are connected, or how one arose
from the other. Can you? --Michael Hix, Redlands, California 

Dear Michael:  

Never underestimate human ingenuity. Margaret has
spawned an amazing variety of names, some of which you
wouldn't connect with the original in a million years. For
example: Margot, Marguerita, Rita (!), Greta, Gretel,
Gretchen, Marjorie (originally Margery), Margie, Maggie,
Madge, May, Maisie, Daisy (!!), Maidie, Meg, and Mog. As for
Peg, one historian writes, "the nicknames Mog and Meg later
gave rise to the rhymed forms Pog(gy) and Peg(gy)." Can't
say as I know a lot of Poggies, and can't say as I want to.
But you see how Grandma Margaret wound up with Peg.  

OOPS O' DAISY . . .


For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_268.html

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