Indians, Snakes & Noah

Did Romans wear false teeth? Is Alaska bigger than Texas? Will a turtle's egg bounce?

Radio's Answer Man has been carefully answering such questions (Yes to all three) for the past 14 years. Started in Manhattan, where it is now heard twice daily (1:30 p.m. and 6:15 p.m., Monday through Friday, WNBC), The Answer Man quickly spread across the nation, is now broadcast at varying times in 51 U.S. cities.

Questions pour in at the rate of 2,500 a day, and all of them--even those used on the air--are answered by mail. About 40% of the queries deal with local subjects or can be readily handled by thumbing through a standard reference book. The remaining, tougher 60% are forwarded to The Answer Man's Manhattan headquarters, appropriately located across the street from New York City's 5,000,000-volume Public Library, to be solved by 50-year-old Producer Bruce Chapman, his 40-man staff and a postal panel of 20,000 obliging experts,

Floating Beer Keg. Chapman divides the questions that bother Americans into

1) "Commons," e.g., "Do rattlesnakes always rattle before striking?" (No);

2) "Unusuals," e.g., "How many muscles in an elephant's nose?" (40,000);

3) "Helpfuls," e.g., "Is drip coffee stronger if you pour the water through twice?" (No, weaker).

Some puzzlers can be answered only by experiment. Golfer Sam Snead obligingly proved that it is possible to drive a golf ball through a Providence-Pawtucket telephone book. An entomologist held a stop watch on a parasol ant, reported its rate of travel as 720 ft. an hour. Chapman, asked whether a wooden keg full of beer would float in sea water, dropped one into New York Harbor, found that it did --just barely.

Americans seem to have a consuming interest in snakes. They must be told repeatedly that there is no such thing as 1) a hoop snake, which is supposed to put its tail in its mouth and roll downhill when frightened, or 2) a milk snake, which is supposed to sneak into barns and milk cows, or 3) a cannibal snake, which supposedly eats its young. Another bump of curiosity is excited by the Old Testament. Questioners want to know if Adam was divorced (from Lilith, according to Jewish folklore); whom Cain married (possibly his sister Awan); who was Noah's wife (probably Naamah). For no reason that Chapman and his associates can figure out, the most recurrent question is: "Do Indians have beards-?" (Yes).

L' Homme Qui Saif. Last spring backed by EGA, The Answer Man crossed the Atlantic. He broadcasts to Great Britain over Radio Luxembourg; in Germany as Der Antwortmann; in France as L'Homme Qui Salt; in Holland as De Antwoord-Man; to Poland as Dr. Wszech-wiedzki. A surprising number of questions pour in from behind the Iron Curtain. Those not answered on the air are answered by letters sent in plain envelopes and without mention of The Answer Man. Ticklish political questions are cleared through the State Department.

Last week two new Answer Men began broadcasting, one in Greece (Aftos Pou Sola Apanda) and one in Turkey (Hazircevap Adam). As in every other foreign country, Chapman was warned not to expect the same lively and miscellaneous curiosity he is used to in the U.S. "Europeans are different," he is repeatedly told. Says Chapman: "They don't seem very different to me. One of the questions Europeans ask most frequently is 'Do Indians have beards?'"

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