Question: Why do fish have lips?
Answer: We can think of several reasons why human beings have lips. Lips make it easier for babies to latch onto the mother during breast-feeding. They are helpful when forming the sounds "p" and "b." And they making kissing a far more decent, civilized endeavor (think how toothy and tonguey it would be otherwise).
Fish aren't mammals, though, so they don't nurse, much less speak or kiss. Why do they need these lip structures?
We are proud to report the interesting news that fast fish don't have lips, but slow fish do, particularly the bottom-feeders. In other words you can take a look at a fish - a catfish, for example, which has some serious lips - and know a little about what kind of life it leads.
Think of a swordfish, up there on the wall of a corporate boardroom. No lips. A barracuda has that mean-spirited lipless look as well. Marlin and mackerel and tuna have no lips - they race through the water at tremendous speed and don't want any loose flaps of flesh to ruin their hydrodynamic design.
But a catfish or a perch or a triggerfish will have lips. These grub around the bottom of the ocean or lake, nibbling at things. The lips have taste buds on them and thus help in identifying what's good to eat. They also help channel food into the mouth.
"You do find (lips) in bottom fish that do more manipulating, that poke around in the sand," says Richard Rosenblatt, an ichthyologist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif.
There are, by the way, fish who kiss. They are called Kissing Gouramis. They just swim up face to face and smack each other. They are just communicating, though - there is no necking in the fish world.
Question: Why are you always "just getting by" no matter how much money you make?
Answer: You may remember a time when your personal finances were simpler. This is because you were a loser who had nothing. Someone paid you a terrifying small amount of money every week; you spent it on rent and Kentucky Fried Chicken. At night you would watch sitcoms on TV and wonder how the sitcom families could always afford such nice furniture.
Now, years later, you make more money, but you're still broke half the time because you spend so much more. Why do you spend so much?
Olivia Mellan, a Washington psychotherapist an author of the upcoming book "Overcoming Overspending," says that big spenders are trying to fill an emptiness inside themselves, perhaps some emotional deprivation experienced in childhood.
"The real needs are for self-esteem and self-love and growth. To feel that you are evolving into a better person and that you are giving your gifts to the world," Mellan says. Spending money is a false way to satisfy those needs, she says.
We'd point out that it's just plain fun to buy things. The problem is, we all overconsume, and thus have to work longer hours to make ends meet.
Vicki Robin, co-author of "Your Money or Your Life," says, "The real inflation in our society has been the inflation of our needs, wants and desires." It leads inevitably to dissatisfaction, she says: "No matter how much you have, it's not enough."
She suggests that everyone calculate precisely how much money they make an hour, in real terms, factoring in taxes, car expenses, clothing costs, commuting time, etc. Then, when you spend money on, say, a big meal at a restaurant, realize that you are spending a piece of your life - the amount of time it took to make that sum of money. Is it worth it?
The Why staff advice is: Always pay for stuff with credit cards. Because if you pay with cash it's just so darn expensive.
The Mailbag:
Jeni B. of Redford, Mich., asks, "Why is some water salty and some not?"
Dear Jeni: What is this worldwide obsession with dividing things into two categories? You always hear about "fresh" water vs. "salt" water. But what about "briny" water? What about the gradations of salt water?
Did you know that the Baltic Sea is much fresher than the Mediterranean? Fact! The salt in the Baltic averages 10 parts per thousand, while it's about 38.5 parts per thousand in the Mediterranean (which compares with 36 parts per thousand in the Atlantic Ocean).
That's because the Baltic has lots of sources of fresh water, and relatively little evaporation, because it's so far north (and it's one of the cheap properties in Monopoly). The hot Mediterranean, meanwhile, is constantly evaporating, with relatively few rivers running into it.
Now let's answer your question. A typical stream will wash sodium and other minerals out of rocks in the mountains. The sodium, if combined with chloride, forms one type of salt.
So where does the chloride come from? From deep within the earth, says Elizabeth Johns, an oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. When the earth was young and tempestuous, it was spewing out lots of gases, including water vapor and, notably, hydrochloric acid. The chloride in that acid combined with sodium from rocks to form sea salt.
That means the ocean has been salty for billions of years. It's vaguely reassuring, somehow.