It has been over ten years since the U.S. government mandated that all cars be equipped with a “center high-mounted stop lamp” or “CHMSL,” as it is referred to in my vehicle’s shop manual. The CHMSL, of course, is the little red brake light that is mounted in the rear window of a car to catch the attention of drivers who might not notice your side-mounted brake lights. Has this invention reduced the incidence of rear-end collisions? –Tom Meyer, Trenton, NJ
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Believe it or not, there are people whose job it is to keep track of stuff like this. Every year the federal government publishes thousands of pages of regulations covering everything from auto emissions to the privatization of the National Helium Reserve in Amarillo, Texas. Business types have long complained that all this red tape drives up prices and, even worse, doesn’t do any good. So the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 and Executive Order 12866 now require federal agencies (such as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) to periodically review the effectiveness of their regulations (such as those requiring CHMSLs, commonly pronounced chim-sulls), with a view to getting rid of those that are useless or counterproductive. Too bad this rule doesn’t apply to people, too.
As a child I used to get excruciating growing pains in my legs–I would literally wake up crying. I always wondered what caused these pains and why they were only in my legs. Was it actually my leg bones growing that I felt? Curiously, during the biggest growth spurt of my life, nearly four inches in about a year from 17 to 18, I don’t remember my legs hurting a lick. I gather the experts don’t really know. One doctor said the pains were the result of injuries during the day that children at play overlook, but at night when they’re relaxed the pain returns. That sounded like hooey to me. Please tell me you know something the experts don’t. –J., Tampa, FL
