Ask Aunt Marilyn

This is Marilyn vos Savant. You know her. She’s in Parade magazine every week, answering questions that make my head spin. Frank always calls the column “Ask Aunt Marilyn.” Apparently she has the highest IQ in the whole wide world. And look at her. She’s the ultimate "smart and pretty.”


I like the ones where we have to figure out how people are related like, “Joey and Matt are cousins. Melissa is married to Matt and Joey is her brother. Joey’s son is not related to Sam but is related to Mary. How are Mary and Melissa related?”
(Don’t try to solve that. I made it up. And I’m pretty sure Melissa is breaking some laws by being married to her cousin.)

I don’t so much like the ones that have to do with numbers or shapes or trains.

Last Sunday I read the best question ever. This is something I didn’t know, always wondered and will now use the rest of my life. Check it out:

Preheating ovens seems like a waste of gas or electricity. Couldn’t we put the food in the oven when we turn it on and then reduce the baking time? For example, instead of preheating the oven at 350° for 10 minutes and then baking cookies for 10 minutes, the cookies might spend the first 10 minutes at the lower temperature and need only five more minutes at the higher temperature.—Kevin Miller, Madison, Ala.

Aunt Marilyn’s Response: I’m afraid not. Regardless of taste considerations, the most important issue is safety. Bacteria thrive in warm temperatures, so they would multiply rapidly during those preheating minutes, giving you many more bacteria to kill during the shortened high-temperature cooking process.

Brilliant! While I always waited until the oven pre-heated, I didn't know why I had to. And sometimes I did get anxious and throw something in before the beep. Never again!

Then she went on to pose a question about this silly box…

…and my head started spinning again. Oh, well. I guess some of us have to settle for just being pretty.