Two questions that I think are fairly simple but I haven’t really gotten to the answers yet. :o
So why is the other side of the pillow cooler? I think I’ve heard an explanation before but I don’t remember what it was and I don’t know if it was really the answer or not anyway.
What is up with all the birds in “The Twelve Days of Christmas?” Quite literally half the song is gifts of birds: seven swans a-swimming, six geese a-laying, four colly birds (question 2.a when/why did it change to calling birds?), three French hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree! The song in general is a bit odd when you think about it but I figure it’s mostly due to the era in which it was written so that’s probably part of the answer anyway.
Thanks to anyone who might feel like answering my silly questions.
Thank you TriPolar. That was chuckle worthy. Now will the next person please kindly actually answer my question? (No, really, it was amusing. I hope I don’t come across as a humorless jerk but I am genuinely curious )
Birds are probably gifted a lot because of their value as farm animals, they take up less space than other livestock and supply both eggs and meat, even the little ones.
Heat from your head is conducted to the pillowcase. The pillow is a good insulator, so the other side of the pillow will remain cooler. There may be other minor factors to consider, but that’s basically it.
I’m pretty sure the other side of the pillow is cooler because it hasn’t been absorbing the heat out of your head while you laid on it.
I’m not sure how much of a scientific answer you were expecting, how do you suppose the top side gets to be warm in the first place?
Well that settles it about the pillows. I thought I remembered some sort of explanation about air currents and such but that’s apparently wrong. It was just a vague memory of something that may or may not have actually happened anyway.
So then why am I getting the bird from my true love six out of the twelve days of Christmas?
Does there have to be a reasoned answer to your second question? They’re lyrics to a song that was written by someone long ago. Perhaps they just liked birds a lot. Without asking the person who wrote it how could anyone know for sure why they wrote it the way they did.
The pillow is a good insulator, so the temperature of the underside will tend to settle at the average temperature of the room, which will be cooler than the room some of the time.
Interesting poster/post content equivalence here, since the topic is the economic value of birds as, e.g., food animals. In fact, it may be the acme of such posts.
From Wikipedia
The meaning of “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” if it has any, has yet to be satisfactorily explained. According to The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, “Suggestions have been made that the gifts have significance, as representing the food or sport for each month of the year. Importance [certainly has] long been attached to the Twelve Days, when, for instance, the weather on each day was carefully observed to see what it would be in the corresponding month of the coming year. Nevertheless, whatever the ultimate origin of the chant, it seems probable [that] the lines that survive today both in England and France are merely an irreligious travesty.”
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