Feldman answers questions you didn't know you had

It seemed impossible to answer. And that is why David Feldman was interested. Why do women open their mouths while putting on mascara? Friends didn't know. Neither did the ladies at the makeup counters at department stores. Then he got a tip to call a New York plastic surgeon.

"He said, 'When I give patients an eyelid job, I have them open their mouths as wide as possible because it stretches the skin,' " Feldman says. "Women do this for a completely logical reason, even though they don't know it."

Mr. Feldman didn't stop there. Next he moved on to find out why dogs have wet noses, why flyswatters have holes, and if penguins have knees. The answers to these questions and many more are now in 10 books, including "Do Elephants Jump?" (HarperCollins, $19.95), due to be released Friday.

"I think everybody thinks about these things, but normal people let them go by," says Feldman, a middle-aged man with a charming habit of smiling after nearly every sentence.

Indeed, Feldman rarely lets anything curious slip by.

Walking down a grocery aisle, he can't help wondering why frosted and unfrosted cornflakes have the same amount of calories; at a diner, he'll question why it is so difficult to open a package of crackers. For months he'll ponder if elephants can jump.

His curiosity isn't "on" all the time, he admits. "To be honest," Feldman says, "I turn it off when I don't have to" be looking for ideas to fill books. "But I can't help it. I've always been curious."

Feldman's hyperactive curiosity began as a child, he says, when he started wondering why some television shows and rock bands were more popular than others.

"He always liked to ask a million questions," says Phil Feldman, David's brother. "I remember being annoyed. You'd think you'd answered the question, then he'd take it a level deeper."

Feldman went on to study popular culture at Grinnell College in Iowa, and later took a job in TV programming at NBC.

His career plans changed, however, one day at a Manhattan grocery store. Perusing the aisles for a low-calorie cereal, Feldman discovered that Kellogg's Sugar Frosted Flakes and Kellogg's Corn Flakes both had 110 calories per ounce. Later he went to a diner and watched a man struggle to open a package of saltine crackers.

"If we can put a man on the moon," Feldman says, "why can't they make a cracker package you can open with your hands?" That's when the word "imponderable" popped into his head, he says.

Feldman began writing down his "imponderables" (the word means "something that cannot be answered conclusively") in a notebook. To answer them, he'd start at the New York Public Library. There he'd consult the Encyclopedia of Associations and the Thomas Register of American Manufacturers.

The multivolume Thomas Register is "gigantic, like this big," Feldman says, stretching his arms wide. "Let's say you have a question about pencils.... You go to the Thomas Register, and it'll give you a list of every pencilmaker in the country."

Feldman is often skeptical of the first answers he receives from the companies, associations, and professionals he contacts. In trying to answer the imponderable of why dogs have wet noses, for example, he was told by several veterinarians that it was because dogs don't have sweat glands.

Feldman says that sounded too simple. So he contacted two canine respiratory specialists. They told him they were not entirely certain of the answer, either.

"The higher you go," Feldman says, "often they're not as sure. One thing kids need to know is: Don't assume it's right, even if it's in a book."

Most of the time, Feldman says his sources respond kindly to his inquiries. They are usually in small industries and do not regularly get calls from writers.

"I often say, 'Have you heard of Ann Landers?' " referring to the late advice columnist. " 'You know how she helps people with their problems? I help them with their meaningless problems.' "

Sometimes, the people he calls seem confused. To find out why some barbecues are circular and others rectangular, he called a well-known maker of round grills. "That's confidential information," he was told. Later he received a letter from the company's lawyer. That struck Feldman as "downright weird."

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