Good Questions: Gatorade Dump, Mayday, Colds
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - Some of us have spent much of the past week watching football, playing outside or maybe getting over a cold.
We fielded viewers' questions on football game Gatorade protocol, international distress signals and the cold-cold correlation.
After David from Lonsdale watched Thursday's Gopher game, he wanted to know: Why do players dump Gatorade on the winning coach?
According to Darren Rovell, author of "First in Thirst: How Gatorade Turned the Science of Sweat into a Cultural Phenomenon," the tradition started in 1985 when New York Giants nose guard Jim Burt decided it would be a good way to celebrate New York's win over Washington. Burt also told Rovell that he wanted to get back at Coach Bill Parcells for riding him too hard. Apparently, Parcells was superstitious, so he welcomed the dunk for the rest of the season. By 1986, the Gatorade marketing team got ahold of the story. And the rest is history.
Dayle from Inver Grove Heights and Jim from Rice asked: Why is Mayday an international distress signal?
Oxford Dictionary says the term stems from the French word m'aidez, which means "help me." In 1923, a British radio officer thought Mayday would be more easily understood in an emergency than help or S.O.S.
Annika from Hopkins wants to know: Does being cold have anything to do with getting a cold?
"No," said Minnesota Department of Health Assistant Commissioner Aggie Leitheiser. "It's not really about the cold weather."
Colds are viruses that are spread through droplets when someone sneezes, coughs or blows their nose. Leitheiser said the myth likely sticks around from the era before we knew about germs. She also said we tend to associate cold weather with colds because viruses thrive in dry air and people spend more time inside spreading germs during the winter.
