Can dogs catch your cold? And why no jill-o’-lantern?

From Oct. 22, 2007:

I have at hand a rant-and-rave from a guy who says that while hiking, he and his wife frequently see plastic bags left along the trail by hikers who used them to clean up after their dogs. He thinks that’s pretty stupid.

If people are really just walking off and leaving the stuff, I agree. However, with my sunny, optimistic outlook on life and my abiding faith in people, I think people leave them there when they’re outbound and pick them up on their way back. Why carry it around?

Here’s another dog matter:

Are dogs immune to the human common cold?

Yes. The cold and flu viruses that plague us cannot be passed on to dogs. Dogs get their own versions of colds and something like the flu, but those cannot be transmitted to humans.

About the only disease you can get from dogs is rabies. There might be something else. Worms, maybe.

When I see pictures of our soldiers and Marines on television or in the paper, the flag patch on their sleeves is backward. Why?

Because when a flag is a patch and not an actual flag, the blue field is supposed to point in the direction of forward movement.

Why is a carved pumpkin called a jack-o’-lantern? Why not a jill-o’-lantern or a fred-o’-lantern?

There is an Irish folk story about a blacksmith named Jack who swindled the devil but couldn’t get into heaven, and ended up doomed to walk the night for eternity carrying a carved pumpkin with a glowing coal in it.

It’s a nice enough story, but some people don’t think that’s the origin of jack-o’-lantern. For one thing, setting out carved and lighted turnips or gourds probably predates Christianity.

Jack-of-the-lantern first appeared in print in the mid-18th century and referred to a night watchman with a lantern. Some considered it a bit ominous.

Why “jack”? Because John/Jack used to be sort of an all-purpose generic name for “man.”