Wednesday, March 7, 2007 Got a question? Get an answer. Send an e-mail to Dear Mr. Mullings A Dear Mr. Mullings UPDATE: Dear Mr. Mullings: When I am preparing to enter the exit ramp and another car is preparing to get onto the highway, who has the right of way? Although it's not a huge issue here in Indiana, if ever I were to go to the big city, I would like to know what to do. Heather Indiana Take a cab. Seriously, in the olden days of highway design, engineers went to great lengths to build the exit ramps which would allow cars to get off the road prior to the entrance ramps. Seems like a good idea, but for some reason this has fallen into disfavor. Actually, I suspect it has to do with cost. If the exit ramp is prior to the entry ramp, you need two additional lanes: One to slow down to get off; and one - seperate - to speed up to get on. If the entrance ramp is prior to the exit ramp then the merge lane for the entrance ramp can simply be extended for a few dozen feet and it automagically becomes the slow-down lane for the exit ramp. Or buy a tank. ---------------------------------- A Professional Engineer, Jon Bakker, wrote in with the following: Your response was entertaining, but not correct. I am a civil engineer and have done some highway design in my many years of practice. The car entering the highway usually has a yield sign. This would indicate that the car on the highway has the right of way. And, this would be true if the car on the highway is continuing in their lane. However, in my opinion, the car in the entering lane has the right-of-way for the lane in which they are driving. Therefore, the car exiting does not have the right to that lane. It's a standoff! Each car has the right to the lane in which they are driving, but not to the lane to which they would like to move. The solution: The car that is slowing down to exit should offer the right-of-way to the car that is accelerating to enter the highway. Unfortunately, most exiting drivers think that they should have the right-of-way, so they speed up to pull in front of the car that is trying to enter the highway. What we need is a better drivers education program, better manners, and less competition. Fewer drivers talking on their cell phones would help too. Thanks, Jon, but which part of "buy a tank" was incorrect? Dear Mr. Mullings: Why is Indiana called the Hoosier State Adam Alexandria, VA What; you couldn't ask me this at the Starbucks? When I was press secretary to the young Congressman from Huntington, Indiana, Dan Quayle, I was told that the word "Hoosier" came from a common question back in the earliest days of the settlement of Indiana when men, on the other side of having been overserved, would ask one another "Who's yer dad?" leading to great gales of hilarity and not a few gunfights. Given that I worked for Quayle for about two years including his early Senate career, I learned from experience that most Hoosiers have about the same sense of humor as a Maine Lobsterman in February. There is no definitive explanation for how "Hoosier" came to be the nickname for Indiana. According to an excellent article at the Indiana University Alumni website by Diane Carmony What's a Hoosier?", one explantion is: [One theory] has a contractor in 1825 named either Samuel Hoosier or Hoosher. His workers, who helped build a canal on the Ohio River, were predominantly from Indiana. They were called "Hoosier's men" or "Hoosiers." Read Ms. Carmony's entertaining piece for more theories. Dear Mr. Mullings: Where does the term "dark horse candidate" come from? Harry San Antonio, TX According to the trivia-library.com website (which, in turn, quotes the People's Almanac), the term "Dark Horse" dates back to a novel by Benjamin Disraeli, "The Young Duke: A Moral Tale Though Gay" which was, in the style of the day written in three volumes. In book II, published in 1831, his "main character, the Duke of St. James, attends a horse race that has a surprise finish: "A dark horse which had never been thought of, and which the careless St. James had never even observed in the list, rushed past the grandstand in sweeping triumph." Other sources indicate there was a practice at the time to apply dye to horses to disguise their appearance so as to lengthen the odds on a horse which was a well-known winner. The speculation is the term "dark horse" referred to a horse whose coat was so modified. More about Disraeli. This from the Britiannia.com website: Known as a dandy, a novelist, a brilliant debator and England's first and only Jewish prime minister. A Conservative, he was elected to Parliament in 1837 after failing to win election in four earlier elections. [He was first elected Prime Minister in 1868.] Disraeli became prime minister for the second time in 1874 at the age of 70. Last one Dear Mr. Mullings: Are there archives for "Dear Mr. Mullings"? John No. Well, yes, if you happen to remember the subject of the question and Google that word plus the phase "Dear Mr. Mullings," but I know that's not what you mean. I had every intention of constructing an archive during my unbelievably long plane trips to and from Washington and Austin; and then back and forth to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Unfortunately, The Lad turned me on to the TV program "The Office" so I downloaded the first two years from iTunes and watched them on the plane. I promise I'll get it done this month. See you next week. Rich Got a question? Get an answer. Send an e-mail to Dear Mr. Mullings                                     Click here to return to the Secret Decoder Ring page Copyright © 2007 Barrington Worldwide, LLC