Question: If one cat has 20 toes, do five cats have 100? But first, are they all polydactyl cats?
Answer: "Polydactyl" means "many digits," and in a housecat means more than the normal 18 toes (five + five in front, counting the two dewclaws, and four + four in back). Thus a 20-toed cat would certainly exhibit polydactylism, not at all uncommon, although in show breeds it can be regarded as a disqualifying feature.
This is a dominant mutation, with an estimated 40 percent to 50 percent of kittens sharing parental polydactyly. So if the other four cats in question are among 20-Toe's progeny, 100 or more might not be a bad guess, especially since some polydactyls have seven toes up front, six in back, or different numbers all around, says the online Canadian Federation of Humane Societies.
One male cat named Mickey Mouse reportedly had 32 toes, at eight per foot, says British cat welfare worker and freelance writer Sarah Hartwell. A condition known as double-paws can also occur, where "each paw is actually two fused mirror-image paws." One cat was said to have all four paws doubled, so when it sat at attention, "it had eight paws in a row."
P.D. cats have also been dubbed "mitten cats," "thumb cats," or "Hemingway cats." The novelist was reportedly once given one, and dozens of its descendants wandering his old Key West estate today are polydacts ("for whom the toes are told").
Question: If you really know your classic art top to toe, try to cite two instances of human polydactyly (extra digits) in the paintings of Raphael.
Answer: One is the case of six toes on the left leg of St. Joseph in "The Marriage of the Virgin," done in 1504, reports the British Medical Journal; www.bmj.com. This is probably deliberate, as Raphael was attentive to detail, and St. Joseph is the only barefooted figure in the painting.
This well-formed digit-plus, off the fifth toe, corresponds to a "postaxial polydactyly of type A." This relatively rare anomaly occurs in but 1 in 630 to 3,300 live births among whites, more among blacks.
A second instance is the infant John the Baptist gazing at the Christ Child in "La Belle Jardiniere" (1507). Since this type of polydactyly is an autosomal dominant trait (not sex-linked), "we may hypothesize that the two people who served as models for Raphael were relatives, probably father (St. Joseph) and son (the infant)."
Question: Science teacher asked the class how a barometer could be used to determine the height of a tall building. They came up with plenty of creative ways, but not the "right" way. Can you guess what the students suggested?
Answer: Wacky way No. 1: Drop the barometer off the roof and time its fall to the street. Distance down = 16 feet x the number of seconds squared. Example: five-second drop = 400 feet.
No. 2: Lower the barometer on a long rope, then measure the rope.
No. 3: On a sunny day, compare shadow proportions. Example: If the barometer's shadow is five times the barometer's length, then the building is five times as tall as its shadow is long.
No. 4: Count off barometer lengths to the roof as you climb the stairs, then multiply by the barometer's length.
No. 5: Knock on the building superintendent's door and say, "Hey, Mr. Super, I've got this cool barometer I'll give you if you tell me the height of this building . . . "
None of the above gets close to the textbook way of measuring building height, using the drop in barometric pressure from the street to the roof, and converting: Example: A two percent pressure drop indicates a 540-foot skyscraper.
Send STRANGE questions to brothers Bill and Rich at strangetrue@compuserve.com.