# Got a Question You Ponder? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 27, 2001, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-a-question-you-ponder/84185 "2001-09-27T20:57:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![The\_Big\_Cheese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8baadc/32.png) [@The\_Big\_Cheese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Big_Cheese)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2001, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-a-question-you-ponder/84185/21 "2001-09-28T13:57:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Superdude \* > \*\*How did the “tradition” of one athlete touching or patting another’s butt after a good play come into being? \*\* I don’t know, but that’s precisely why I didn’t become one. ---
**Author:** ![Lockfist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/838e76/32.png) [@Lockfist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lockfist)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2001, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-a-question-you-ponder/84185/22 "2001-09-28T14:25:33Z")
You are being given an award, everyone applauds. Do you clap for yourself or just smile ? ---
**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2001, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-a-question-you-ponder/84185/23 "2001-09-28T17:20:51Z")
Why is it, when people hear a car backfire, they always say “I thought that was a gunshot!” and when they hear gunshots, they tell reporters “Well, at first I thought it was a car backfiring”?? ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2001, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-a-question-you-ponder/84185/24 "2001-09-30T21:52:35Z")
Do cars even backfire any more, since the advent of fuel-injection engines? ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2001, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-a-question-you-ponder/84185/25 "2001-09-30T22:05:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rilchiam \* > \*\*Do cars even backfire any more, since the advent of fuel-injection engines? \*\* Nope. This is, sadly, a dying cliche. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2001, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-a-question-you-ponder/84185/26 "2001-10-01T00:52:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lockfist \* > \*\*You are being given an award, everyone applauds. Do you clap for yourself or just smile ? \*\* In China you would clap for yourself along with everyone. ---
**Author:** ![orion007](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e480ec/32.png) [@orion007](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orion007)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2001, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-a-question-you-ponder/84185/27 "2001-10-01T00:58:10Z")
What am I like to other people? ---
**Author:** ![Arden\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b487fb/32.png) [@Arden\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arden_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2001, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-a-question-you-ponder/84185/28 "2001-10-01T00:58:22Z")
Why do they say “I’ll call you” and then they don’t? My daughter is currently pondering that one. It’s one I never had a polite answer for. ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2001, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-a-question-you-ponder/84185/29 "2001-10-01T01:11:54Z")
Why don’t more girls ask guys out? ---
**Author:** ![Smashed\_Ice\_Cream](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Smashed\_Ice\_Cream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smashed_Ice_Cream)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2001, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-a-question-you-ponder/84185/30 "2001-10-01T01:12:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cougarfang \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by Kayeby \* > > \*\*This has been bugging me for _ages_ … > > > > Okay, you know how you think to yourself? And it comes out in words in your head? And people who speak English think in English and people who speak French think in French? Do people who have been deaf all their lives think in sign language? \*\* > > hmmm… well, i was raised in an english atmosphere but am now being marinated in chinese, so i think in a combo of both. this is highly useful if i can’t think of the word in one language but can in the other. I can’t speak for deaf people, though, as i don’t know any, but my hypothesis is yes, they do use sign language, or maybe symbols or made-up languages. i really don’t know. anyone want to answer? \*\* Hi all - I’m new to the board but i’ve been lurking for a few days. I’m deaf from birth, but I speak. I don’t really suppose I think in ‘words’ - except, of course, trying to think of what word i want to type in next as i’m doing now. e.g. - i just looked across the room and saw the kitchen is messy. I didn’t think “gee, my kitchen is messy” - i just noticed it. Words only come in handy when conveying them to someone else??? Like (spoken to my SO) “dear, please go clean the kitchen, I am attempting to become accepted into the exclusive teeming millions club.” I definitely don’t dream with words. I actually wondered if people did. I also rarely see people sign in my dreams. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Nonny\_Mouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5e9695/32.png) [@Nonny\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonny_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2001, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-a-question-you-ponder/84185/31 "2001-10-01T01:13:38Z")
Why are bats considered creepier than mice? Nonny ---
**Author:** ![Cougarfang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c67d28/32.png) [@Cougarfang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cougarfang)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2001, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-a-question-you-ponder/84185/32 "2001-10-01T01:17:49Z")
perhaps because there are vampire BATS but no vampire MICE. (good thing, too :D) ---
**Author:** ![Persephone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@Persephone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Persephone)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2001, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-a-question-you-ponder/84185/33 "2001-10-01T01:23:07Z")
Why don’t my children look like me? I’ve birthed three of them. Not a one of them looks like me. I carried them in my body for nine months, suffered through labor and delivery, and you can’t tell by looking at them that they’re mine. I, my sister and my brother all look like my mother. My mother looks like her mother. Why don’t my kids look like me? I _was_ pregnant. I swear to the Goddess, those children came from my body. I have witnesses to prove it. I don’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![dalovindj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/65b543/32.png) [@dalovindj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalovindj)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2001, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-a-question-you-ponder/84185/34 "2001-10-01T03:19:07Z")
What purpose do dreams really serve? Is it possible that the chaotic dream world is as real or more so then waking reality? I know when I touch a table in a dream it feels like I’m touching a table. It shows how much power perception has over your reality. Which reality is real? Out there, I know, but I still think about it . . . DaLovin’ Dj ---
**Author:** ![WEW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@WEW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WEW)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2001, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-a-question-you-ponder/84185/35 "2001-10-01T04:07:18Z")
Welcome to the boards **Smashed Ice Cream**. That’s very ineresting. I think that I only think with words when, like Smashed, I am planning to convey them to others like now. Usually I think in images that I narrate with words. Very often I will think something in a second that takes several seconds to say. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-a-question-you-ponder/84185.md?page=1)