Answer Man
The Baconator That Never Was
Why can’t I get a bacon burger at the Wendy’s across from Florida Hospital?
The signs leave no doubt: “This Wendy’s location CAN NOT offer any pork products as a menu item.’’ And it’s been that way for the nine years the restaurant has been open.
Here’s why: Wendy leases its North Orange Avenue location from Adventist Health System, parent company of Florida Hospital. Seventh-day Adventists, among other religions, abstain from pork, considering it “unclean.’’
A Wendy’s corporate spokesman confirms that a no-pork clause is written into the lease and “we continue to honor the details of the lease.’’
Whether you agree with the policy, chew on this: The six slices of Applewood smoked bacon you’d be getting if you could order the Double Baconator weigh in at about 180 total calories and about 14 grams of fat.
Hasta la vista, aorta.
How come the gramer, spelling and punctation on online comment boreds is allways so bad?
Answer Man recently went on a hunt for the inerudite on some Casey Anthony message boards and bagged his daily limit quickly, with jewels like “That makes no sence’’ and “She need to be done if found guilty the same way that child was done.’’
This malady has a name, says language expert Martha Marinara: aliteracy.
“It’s not that people can’t read and write; it’s that they choose not to,’’ says Marinara, associate professor of writing and rhetoric at UCF. “They can read screens, but if you don’t read complex texts, you don’t really know how the words are spelled.’’
Making an aliterate post hurts the credibility of the poster, Marinara says. Put another way: Who wants to read your views if you can’t even show a basic command of the written word?
A good way to battle aliteracy, other than being well read: Instead of writing your comment directly on the message board, compose it on a word processing document, proof it for grammar and logic (or ask someone else to), run the program’s spell checker, then copy and paste it into the comment field.
How do I know if amazing videos or photos on Facebook links are the real thing?
It’s certainly embarrassing to link to an incredible item via your Facebook page with the comment “Wow, this is amazing’’ only to learn that you have been duped. A notable example: A video that showed a “ball girl’’ practically running up an outfield wall to make a catch of a foul ball got a lot of “oohs’’ and “aahs’’ on FB but actually was a doctored marketing video for Gatorade.
So how to keep from looking foolish? Check out such things at snopes.com, which the owners, researchers Barbara and David Mikkelson, describe as the “online touchstone of rumor research.’’ The Los Angeles couple have been investigating squirrely claims for 15 years, and their searchable database is an absolute wonder.
Answer Man welcomes your questions about the Orlando area. Send queries to answerman@orlandomagazine.com
