The Wise Book of Whys Read Free Page A

Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash.
    Classic-style "Race R ecords" (not mixed with Country music) at this same time were in the process of being re-branded to "Rhythm and Blues," thanks to famed music journalist and producer Jerry Wexler.
    As for “ Country music,” this was originally called "Hillbilly music," but in the 1940s, Ernest Tubb helped re-brand this type of music. Tubb stated, “Hillbilly, that’s what the press use to call it, ‘Hillbilly music.’ Now, I always said, ‘You can call me a hillbilly if you got a smile on your face.’ We let the record companies know that they were producing Country music ’cause we all come from the country.”
     
     

Why Dalmatians are the Traditional Dog of Choice at Firestations
     
    One of the most effective fir e-fighting tools in the mid-eighteenth century was the steam pumper -a machine that consisted of a boiler, which was able to use steam to force water out of hoses and onto a fire. The fire brigade’s horse-drawn carriages, loaded with the machine, would be hitched up, and the vehicle would tear off down the road.
    When fire fighters were racing off to fight the flames, the y didn’t have time to slow down for all the pedestrians using the road, which is where the Dalmatians came in.
    Besides being known for forming strong bonds with horses, in the early 1700s, it was observed that Dalmatians w ere perfectly suited for traveling long distances. As stated by the Dalmatian Club of America, the English at this time felt that Dalmatians had the "strength, vitality, fortitude and size to keep running along under the carriage for hundreds of miles."
    When the travelers rested for the night, the dogs were also useful for standing guard over the horses and the people’s belongings. It soon became popular among English aristocrats to have Dalmatians run alongside their carriages , and the dogs even became something of a symbol of social status -the more you had running alongside your carriage, the wealthier you must be.
    This brings us back to Dalmatians and the horse-drawn fire carriages. Because of the dogs’ reputation and the long-standing practice of using them this way, they were the dog of choice for running along with fire carriages.
    With their strength and stamina, they typically didn’t have any trouble keeping up w ith the carriages even when the carriages were flying down the roads at high speeds. The Dalmatian would scare away anything that might spook the horses, as well as serve as the first “siren,” with the Dalmatians’ bark alerting pedestrians on the road that the fire brigade was on its way and to move off the street.
    While the firemen unloaded their equipment and rushed off to put the fire out, their trusty Dalmatians would stay with the cart, keeping the horses calm and guarding the firemen’s belongings. Not only that, but once they were back at the fire house, the Dalmatian s were often trained to sniff out and kill rats and other vermin.
    When the much more efficient motorized fire trucks were created, there were no longer horses for Dalmatians to keep company and no need for them to run ahead of the trucks to alert people that the fire brigade was coming—there were sirens for that now. Their usefulness spent, Dalmatians might have vanished from fire stations altogether. Instead, they turned into fire station mascots, particularly popular when firefighters go around teaching kids about fire safety . Of course, at this point any dog could be used, and sometimes that's the case, but given the long-standing tradition of using Dalmatians, it seems likely they will remain the dog of choice at many fire stations for the foreseeable future.
     
     
    BONUS FACT
     
    A common myth is that Dalmatians were originally kept in fire houses because, unlike other breeds, the loud sound of the siren s won’t hurt their ears. While it is true that Dalmatians are predisposed to deafness (only about 70% have normal hearing), they were