October, October
Held in November in America, this holiday is always celebrated on the second Monday of October in Canada.
Answer: What is Thanksgiving?
The date was chosen to align with the end of the Canadian autumn harvest.
Cook slices of this common citrus fruit in water to help clean the microwave.
Answer: What is lemon?
It loosens dried-on messes and makes cleaning with a little dishwashing liquid a breeze.
“Let your fingers do the walking.”
Answer: What is the Yellow Pages?
The Yellow Pages is a book of business listings put out by the telephone company. Years ago, it was a thicker, all-encompassing telephone directory of both personal and professional listings. Those huge books also had blue pages, which were government listings.
Some people consider this to be an unlucky number.
Answer: What is 13?
The myth of 13 being unlucky dates to ancient times. One theory is that since 12 was considered the perfect number, the number that follows it must be unlucky. TWA never had a 13th row on their airplanes, and the building that housed its corporate headquarters did not have a 13th floor.
Money doesn’t grow on these.
Answer: What are trees?
The idiom has two meanings, the less common one being that it takes trees many years to grow from a seed, and seed money requires time to grow.
Red delicious, yellow delicious, and Roma varieties of this fruit are harvested in October.
Answer: What are apples?
Fun fact: The average tree fills roughly 20 boxes at harvest, weighing approximately 42 pounds each.
When boiling water in the microwave, heat to this point.
Answer: What is when it first starts to boil?
Never remove a cup of water that has reached a rolling boil. It can explode and fly up into your face. The FDA recommends not to heat water or liquids for excessive amounts of time in the microwave.
“King of Beers”
Answer: What is Budweiser?
Before Budweiser was the “King of Beers,” it was the “King of Bottled Beer.”
His famous address begins, “Fourscore and seven years ago.”
Answer: Who is Abraham Lincoln?
The Gettysburg Address continues with, “our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
Kids often argue when we tell them it’s time to hit this.
Answer: What is the sack or the hay?
The sack refers to early mattresses, and people used to hit their sacks to fluff them. The first use of hit the hay dates to the early 1900s.
Reduced sunlight is one reason the leaves on this type of tree change color before the tree loses its leaves.
Answer: What is deciduous? Other factors besides length of daylight include leaf pigment, weather conditions, and soil moisture.
When you microwave potatoes, do this with a fork before nuking them.
Answer: What is poke holes in them?
This allows air to escape and keeps the potatoes from exploding. Potatoes that haven’t been pricked don’t always explode, but it’s better to be safe than have to clean up a mess.
“If it’s gotta be clean, it’s gotta be”—this product.
Answer: What is Tide?
A vintage Tide slogan was, “Dirt can’t hide from intensified Tide.”
This American city is famous for its cable cars.
Answer: What is San Francisco?
The first cable car was placed into service in 1873.
When something becomes popular and sells quickly, it sells like this food.
Answer: What are hotcakes?
This is another name for pancakes, an American invention dating back to the 1600s. Hotcakes were once a staple food at fairs.
This divided country was reunited in October 1990.
Answer: What is Germany?
The Cold War divided the country into East and West. After 45 years, the two were officially reunited on October 3, 1990, less than one year after the Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989.
Never reheat your food in containers made from this substance, which deflects heat rather than conducts it.
Answer: What is metal?
Additionally, the thinner and sharper the metal, the more dangerous it is.
“When you care enough to send the very best.”
Answer: What is Hallmark?
The slogan was released in 1944. Today, Hallmark has expanded to include four TV and streaming channels of feel-good movies and TV shows, a publishing arm, and a wine club.
This is known as “the fabric of our lives.”
Answer: What is cotton?
“The fabric of our lives” is the tagline for the cotton industry.
When taking questionable shortcuts, we cut these.
Answer: What are corners?
Cutting corners can backfire, taking longer to complete a task.
These black swan events often happen in October.
Answer: What are stock market declines or crashes?
Some major black swan events include the Panic of 1907, the stock market crash of 1929, and the Black Monday stock market crash in 1987.
Degreasing the filters on the bottom of over-the-stove microwaves will do this.
Answer: What is make the microwave run more efficiently?
Accumulated grease in the filter makes your microwave work much harder.
“Stronger than dirt!”
Answer: What is Ajax?
The Colgate-Palmolive company launched Ajax Powder Cleanser in 1947.
This is an ancient Chinese discipline of meditative movements practiced as a system of exercises.
Answer: What is tai chi?
It was originally a martial art, but today it is a gentle exercise that focuses on postures and controlled breathing. It helps improve balance, which can reduce slips and falls.
When something is tried for the first time or when building something new, we are said to break this.
Answer: What is new ground?
The idiom dates to ancient times and comes from breaking ground to build a new structure.