James Explains Hot Dogs Amongst Other Things

It’s Tuesday and according to my not-very-strictly-observed blogging schedule, today is the day I explain things.

It may well be things that people have asked me to explain or it could be things that no-one asked me to explain.

It may be things I know something about or it may be things I know nothing about.

But dammit I will explain.

And today I will be explaining the following things:

Glen who previously asked about combs and is still from Australia asks:

How did people make the first tools if they didn’t have any tools?

Well Glen, that is a question. And another question is what did poor workmen blame before there were any tools?

And the answer, quite simply, is rocks. They blamed rocks. Because they couldn’t accept that they were just poor workmen.

But the good workmen, they took those poor scapegoated rocks and they made tools with them. Somehow. And then the poor workmen were happy because they had some tools to blame.

Which is better than blaming rocks.

Pete, who previously asked about my name and is still from the UK but somewhere different in the UK to me asks:

What is the point?

A marvellous question Pete. And one I’ll answer right now.

A point is the tapered sharp end of a tool, weapon, or other object. If a rock has a point then you can probably use it to make tools.

But you weren’t asking about ‘a point’ you were asking about ‘the point’ and your use of the definite article changes everything.

Because the answer to that question is that there is no point Pete.

None at all.

Unless you’re referring to the tapered sharp end of a specific object.

In which case, that is the point.

Haylee who previously asked about lions and bears and is still from the UK but somewhere different in the UK to either me or Pete asks:

Is a hotdog a sandwich?

Well you’ve opened up a can of frankfurters there Haylee and no mistake.

According to my research, which consisted of clicking on one link, there is much debate on this matter.

Apparently people really care about this.

So I’m going to sit on the fence on this one, because I really don’t care.

Although it obviously is a sandwich.

Finally Tragically Uncool from (I think) the USA asks:

Will American corporations figure out they’re in a race to the bottom (in terms of product quality, financial ethics and overall social responsibility) before they actually reach the bottom or only after they’ve completely decimated the country?

That is a superb question Tragically Uncool and one I’m in no way qualified to answer. Partly because I’m British but also because I don’t really know anything about anything.

But I’d hazard a guess that the answer to your questions is probably that they will never realise and things will only get worse.

And on that optimistic note, that’s it for me for another week.

I may be back explaining stuff next week.

Who knows?

If you’ve got a question that you need James to answer then why not ask it in the comments below?