Les O'Dell

What do you wonder about? Add yours by leaving a comment.

My wife and I recently saw a television advertisement promoting a company’s new product as “The eighth wonder of the world.” Of course, the commercial featured a booming bass voice, so it was more like “THE EIGHTH WONDER OF THE WORLD.” We were pretty certain that the fancy whatever-it-was probably wasn’t worthy of such an epic description. Besides, we confessed, neither one of us had any clue what the original seven wonders were.

“I think one of them has to do with a garden,” I told my wife. So naturally, we went looking to discover what the Seven Wonders were. It turns out that there are several sets of Seven Wonders. The original ones (The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) include really old structures such as the statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Colossus of Rhodes, the Great Pyramid of Giza and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon (I was right!) and some other old stuff.

There’s also the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. It was developed by a group of engineers, so they’re all “engineery” things like Golden Gate Bridge, the Panama Canal and the Empire State Building (there are four more — imagine that — but we’re not all engineers).

In 1997, CNN (the news channel) announced a listing of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. Things like the Northern Lights, Grand Canyon and Mount Everest all made the list. Somebody else even put together set of “new” Wonders of the World which included the Great Wall of China and the Roman Coliseum. Strangely enough, tacos with their shells made out of Doritos didn’t make the list.

All these lists got me wondering, and like everybody else, I decided to make my own list. So (drum roll, please) here are O’Dell’s Wonders of the World:

 No. 1: What makes the Teflon stick to the skillet in the first place?

No 2: I wonder a lot about food. Why don’t grape-flavored things taste like grapes? Who decided a grape-flavored anything should always be purple and never green? Why is it you can deep-fry practically anything or put it between two slices of bread and Americans will eat it?

Also, why does the sandwich on the menu look absolutely perfect, but the one you get when you open the Styrofoam box appear as though a freight train sat on it? Twice. Sometimes the Styrofoam looks more appetizing. Why do microwavable foods come with instructions for conventional ovens? Like anyone is going to broil a Hot Pocket.

No. 3: Who did let the dogs out?

No. 4: If birds of a feather flock together why do opposites attract?

No. 5: Why is it when you go shopping for clothes, the racks are full of extra-small and extra-large items, but no extra-medium? And how come retailers charge more for larger sizes, but don’t give a discount for smaller ones? If their reasoning of “it takes more material to manufacture a triple-extra-large shirt” holds true, than shouldn’t my size 8 shoes be less costly than someone else’s size 13 shoes?

No. 6: Why is it that every time someone loses their cell phone it is in silent mode or turned off completely? And why is it that no matter what you lose, when you eventually do find it, it’s in the completely last place you looked?

No. 7: Why is the Iowan capital city of Des Moines pronounced “De Moine” while the Illinois city of Des Plaines is “Dez Planes?”

And finally, wonder No. 8: (Hey, it’s my list. Who says there has to only be seven?) Am I the only one that wonders about these things?