Good Question: Friday The 13th, Road Weight Restrictions, Fuzzy Microphones
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Every Friday, we tackle a bunch of viewers' burning questions. This week, Heather Brown explores Friday the 13th superstitions, road weigh restrictions and fuzzy microphones.
Why are we superstitious about Friday the 13th?
The origin of this superstition isn't entirely clear, especially because some cultures consider 13 a happy number. But some suggest 13 is associated with The Last Supper where Judas, Jesus' betrayer, was considered the 13th guest.
Others point to Loki, the Norse god of mischief, who showed up uninvited to a dinner of 12 where Balder, the god of good, was murdered.
As of Friday, spring road weight restrictions are in place across the state. So, that had David from Bird Island wanting to know: Why do we even have those restrictions?
According to the Minnesota Department of Transportation, our roads started as gravel. Decades ago, we put pavement over that gravel. In the spring, roads thaw from the top down which means this time of year, the pavement is sitting on soggy, saturated gravel.
This is the time when the pavement is at its weakest, so are some limits of the weight of loads for the next six to eight weeks.
Brent from St. Louis Park asks: Why do we use the fuzzy microphone?
The first GQ microphone used by both Ben Tracy and Jason DeRusha was created by GQ photographer Joe Berglove in his garage in 2006.
"We called it the Bob Barker microphone because it had the long neck and the small top and that was kind of the iconic microphone of the Good Question," DeRusha says.
When photographer Jose Pascual took over from Berglove, Pascual inherited the microphone. Eventually, and unfortunately, DeRusha lost it. Pascual replaced the "Bob Barker microphone" with a larger silver one, but DeRusha wasn't a fan.
"I felt like it looked like it was from 1972," he says.
So, the fuzzy microphone came into play. DeRusha considers the bushy beast a punishment for his rejection of the silver microphone, but Pascual says it protects against the wind and can gather sound from all directions. But, probably most importantly, it's become a signal of WCCO-TV's Good Question.
"When Heather Brown comes out with the big fuzzy microphone, you know it's Good Question time."