Adrian Northrup

Dear Ask Anything,
Why do they have braille dots on drive-up ATMs?
– Boggled

Well, first I thought this was a valid question because really, if a person is blind, he or she shouldn’t be driving a motorized vehicle. Bad idea.

But then I thought about it again. You don’t need a car to use the drive-up ATM. You can bike, rollerblade, tricycle (though if I was blind, I would stay away from anything with wheels) or even walk up to a money machine.

I suppose it’s a liability thing too. The ATM People (or “Tyme Machine” as some of you Wisconsinites call it) don’t want to get sued for their product being “inaccessible” to a certain group of
people.

But anyway, my guess is the dots don’t get much use. If they bother you, stop being so damn anti-social and get your cash from a bank teller instead of a machine.

Dear Ask anything,
Why does it say shake well on Ketchup bottles but not on Ketchup packets?
– Fried

Well being an obsessive ketchup consumer, this is an easy question. But I’m going to break it into two answers.

First, it says shake well on the ketchup bottle so you remix all the ingredients. If you don’t, instead of getting that salty bright red line of paste on your hot dog, you’ll get some liquidy pink juice with red speck droplets before the ketchup oozes out. And trust me, the pink liquid with red specks does not help the flavor.

The other reason you shake the bottle and not the packet is space. There’s a whole lot more ketchup in a bottle than in one of the tiny individual packets. There’s also more space. Plus you use a bottle on more than one occasion and the ingredients may settle when in it’s refrigerator hibernation. If you’re worried about your ketchup in the packet (or packets, because really who uses just one of those little things) do what I do: simply knead the little guy between your fingers before you rip it open and glop it on your fries. Bon Appetite.