Question and Answer Time

[MC Frontalot]
So, Mr Hodgman...

[John Hodgman]
What?

[Front]
Why does a mirror reverse left and right, but not up and down?

[JH]
It's lazy. It could do it, it doesn't feel like it.

[Front]
I understand.

[JH]
Next question.

[Front]
Why haven't bats been domesticated?

[JH]
They have been. Bats throughout history have been trained to do simple tasks. They carried messages from England to the French resistance during World War II. That was very inefficient. Only one out of every 5,000 bats actually had a message from the English. And oftentimes the message would be destroyed when they poached the bats in butter.

[Front]
Sure.

[JH]
Yeah, so, yeah, bats have been domesticated, but they don't make particularly good pets. Due to the screeching. And they give you warts. You used to be able to order bats through the mail. In the backs of comic books. It was traumatic for a lot of kids. I mean, at first, you'd get a package of freeze-dried bats in the mail and you're excited.

[Front]
Sure.

[JH]
But then when you attempt to rehydrate them... Yeah, not a very good toy. Next question.

[Front]
What is the luckiest plant?

[JH]
This is like what you call in the rapping world "freestyling" isn't it?

[Front]
We are, we are freestyling.

[JH]
I am not a rapper. I will just do the best I can, to answer your questions as usefully as possible.

[Front]
Just honestly and completely, that's all I ask.

[JH]
Exactly. Um, wheatgrass?

[Front]
Lucky as the wheatgrass grows?

[JH]
Lucky as the wheatgrass grows. I know people say that all the time. I don't know what it means.

[Front]
Of the enduring philosophical questions. Which is the most deserving of continued attention and which is the least?

[JH]
That one. And the least, "What time is it?" Because it's very simply answered.

[Front]
It is.

[Jonathan Coulton]
It barely counts as a philosophical question.

[Front]
It's kind of amazing...

[JH]
But still, it sneaks in there.

[Front]
It's incredible that it's still up for debate. It's asked dozens of times a day.

[JH]
Yeah, it's like people are still searching for the answer.

[Front]
Yeah.

[JH]
Look at a watch!