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Okay, it's summer barbecue time, so grab that piece of corn, roll it on that hunk of butter, sprinkle it with salt and pepper and tuck in. And by the way, Collected Wisdom is selling toothpicks today for a mere dollar each.

THE QUESTION: "Why do we talk about an 'ear of corn' but also say we are eating 'corn on the cob'? asked Jane W. Auster of Toronto. "What's the difference between an ear and a cob?"

THE ANSWER: "The cob is the hard inner cylinder to which the kernels are attached," writes Lane Stanley of Whitby, Ont. The ear, however, is the whole thing: cob, kernels, silk and husks, especially when it is still on the stalk.

"It gets confusing because we have no good word for an ear that has been detached from the stalk and had its husks removed. We say 'corn on the cob,' which is difficult because it cannot be pluralized so you can never say how many you want."

An interesting grammatical and gastronomic point to chew on.

THE QUESTION: "Why is it," asked Leo Antonelli of Toronto, "that when you step on an 'up' escalator that isn't working, your legs feel really heavy and it feels like you are climbing Mount Everest? You wouldn't feel that way climbing up a flight of stairs."

THE ANSWER: It's because of the difference in "riser height" between a conventional stationary staircase and an escalator, says Derek Wilson of Port Moody, B.C.

"Stationary stairs are typically built with a riser height of about 7 inches (about 17.5 centimetres) to comfortably accommodate the human physiology. The tread width of a stair is sufficient for stepping on, but not standing on with assurance.

"The step tread on an escalator must be deep enough to accommodate the full foot length of a standing pedestrian. To maintain a customary [staircase] angle, this compels an escalator to have a higher riser height, too.

"A person would feel the same sense of over-exertion if they walked up a stationary stair with, say, 10-inch (25-centimetre) risers."

When an escalator is operating normally, he says, most people stand still on a step and don't notice the taller risers.

Michael Lennick of Bala, Ont., adds that there's also a psychological component. "Escalators are supposed to move. The fact that the one you're on doesn't makes it feel vastly harder to negotiate, much as a deactivated moving sidewalk at an airport seems far harder to saunter down than good old retro flooring."

HELP WANTED

Why, asks Wayne Booth of Toronto, do commercial real-estate signs for space available have the phrase "Brokers Protected" on them?

"You are out in the country cycling and an electrical storm comes up. What should you do?" asks Don Keith of Waterloo, Ont. He says the best idea he's come up with is to stay on the bike, keep his head down and hope his tires will insulate him in the event of being struck by lightning.

"After 80 years of mosquito bites I still swell up after each bite," writes Ben Tassie of Bracebridge, Ont., where they get their fair share of the flying pests. "Why has my body not developed a system to counteract this?"

Send answers (and questions) to wisdom@globeandmail.com. Include your name, location and a daytime phone number.