Does McDonalds put potatos in their Apple Pie?

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: Not according to the listing of ingredients at their website, unless some of those Greek words mean “potato.” The starch product in the delectable crust is based on wheat and the thickener in the apple filling is corn starch. “Apples, corn syrup, sugar, water, modified corn starch, sorbitol, dextrose, brown sugar, sodium alginate, spices, citric acid, salt, dicalcium phosphate. Pastry consisting of: Enriched bleached wheat flour (niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), vegetable shortening (partially hydrogenated soybean and/or cottonseed oil), water, sugar, less than 2% of salt, yeast, l-cysteine (dough conditioner), lecithin. Topping: sugar, spice, partially hydrogenated soybean oil.” The real question is whether the french fries contain potatoes (warning: they’re not for vegetarians).

Answer Person, since the Japanese teams seem to be consistently beating the Americans in the Olympics (men’s gymnastics, swimming, judo, table tennis, etc.), have any Duke sports teams ever played games in Japan? Also, who is the better Japanese player in America, Ichiro or Matsui?

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: Yes, AP knows of at least one event in Japan. On December 1, 1991 the Duke football team played Clemson in the Coca-Cola Bowl in Tokyo. The Coca-Cola Bowl was really just a regular season game, often two teams in the same conference, held in Tokyo each year. See http://goblue.jp/football/ncaainjapan.htm . There may have been other Duke sports events in Japan, perhaps many others. This doesn’t seem to have been compiled in any one place, but you’re welcome to visit the University Archives on the 3rd floor of Perkins Library and tediously look through the records of all the sports programs over the years. Regarding baseball players, AP prefers to stay out of arguments about which sports stars are tops, and maybe it’s best to wait a few years and look back in hindsight. Matsui is a more gentlemanly guy (isn’t he?), which counts for something in my book regardless of his relative playing ability.

Why does my friend Jonas become irrationally angry when he doesn’t eat?

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: All psychological problems have to do with one’s attachment or lack thereof to one’s mother. Jonas’s mother no doubt used to punish him by withholding his dessert. This has scarred him for life, resulting in anger anytime he’s hungry and lacks food.

How much do taxpayers pay per year to keep someone serving a life sentance in prison?

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 2001 the average cost of a prisoner in a state prison system was $22,650/year and in the federal prison system $22,632/year (see pages 2 and 3 of Acrobat version of State Prison Expenditures, 2001 at at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/spe01.htm ). This report doesn’t distinguish between those prisoners serving life sentences and those spending less time, and I suppose they’d differ if there are variations in security levels between these groups. There is a large variation among states, which is discussed in the report. A story in the Christian Science Monitor at http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0512/p02s02-usju.html in May 2004 says that the average “lifer” now serves 29 years in prison.

How does the pressure of scuba diving compare to that of flying in an airplane?

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: If this is a medical question, I suggest you get advice from a medical practitioner because AP isn’t one. I’ve heard that you should leave enough acclimation time between a Scuba dive and an airplane flight so you won’t experience too big a difference between the high pressure of a dive and the lower pressure (even in pressurized cabins) of a flight. The pressures in the atmosphere are about cut in half for every 18,000 feet in altitude. The pressure in the ocean increases by one atmosphere (that is, doubles) for about every 10 meters in depth. Lots of web sites go into the physics of this. I guess that’s why you can’t Scuba dive a mile deep but there are a whole lot of people living in Denver or Mexico City or La Paz.