Welcome to Collected Wisdom's favourite restaurant, Prix Astronomiques, where we're about to tuck in to an exotic dish of boeuf rôti avec pudding de Yorkshire. Now, if only we could get our knife unstuck from our fork ...
THE QUESTION: "A friend was playing with the silverware at a restaurant," writes Judy Growe of Vancouver. "As he slid the pieces around on the tablecloth, he noticed a slight, but definite magnetic attraction as the handle tip of one piece approached the handle tip of another. What would cause this?"
THE ANSWER
: Jana Watson of Welland, Ont., who has worked in the hospitality industry for many years, explains that after diners have finished their meals, restaurant workers take the plates back to the "dish pit" area where leftover food is scraped into the garbage. "The garbage or compost bins have a large plastic lid that has a very strong magnet inside," she writes. "This is to catch silverware that can sometimes get scraped in with the food," thus saving the cost of lost utensils. "This magnet is so powerful, you have to use some force to pull the forks, knives and spoons off it." Some of this magnetism, she writes, remains on the silverware for a while.
Some CW readers said other types of restaurant bins have magnets mounted on the rim or have a magnetic lining.
THE QUESTION: "Every set of directions I have ever seen for making coffee insist that one start with cold water," says David Bird of Fernie, B.C. "This is true for perks, drips, espresso makers etc. Why, if the water is being heated anyway prior to coming in contact with the coffee, must you start with cold water?"
THE ANSWER
: "Salts and other minerals are less soluble in cold water than hot," writes Mary Anne White, a professor in the department of chemistry at Dalhousie University in Halifax, "so hot water from your tap is not as pure as cold water. The salts and minerals that come from the water line and your pipes could adversely influence the taste of the coffee," she says, plus they can clog up the coffee maker over time.
Ravi Deshpande of Toronto adds that water contains dissolved oxygen and that water with more oxygen, and drinks made from it, taste better.
"As the temperature of water goes up," he writes, "the dissolved oxygen content goes down, so cold water has a higher initial oxygen content and better taste." And while cold water does lose some oxygen as it is heated up in the coffee machine, he says the oxygen content that remains is higher than if you had started with hot water. That's because the hot water probably sat in the water heater for some time, allowing a longer period to lose its dissolved oxygen.
HELP WANTED
P. Marit of Oakville, Ont., says the yellow flashing lights over crosswalks are often ignored by motorists. Why not use red signals instead?
What amount of the cover price of a bestselling book goes to the author? George Dunbar of Toronto wants to know.
What causes those length-wise ridges in fingernails? asks Catherine Waddell of Calgary.
Send answers and questions to wisdom@globeandmail.com. Please include your name, location and a daytime phone number.