Russian Race Horses

Hate to do it to you, Doug, but this question actually occurred to me during a meeting ... and I instantly thought of you.... :)
Frantically preparing for an impending meeting, Dinley was panicking and said "I've got to [urinate] like a Russian Race Horse." And off he went.
Q: So, the question is, naturally, how did this association come about? Are Russian Race Horses notorious for massive amounts of pee? Or do they have trouble holding it?

A: This answer was so good, I had to quote it directly from the source, The Phrase Finder: "All horses urinate visibly, audibly and above all copiously, and presumably this is an occurrence highly noticeable at a race meeting when the competing horses are led around the parade ring for the crowds to examine before the off."

This, of course, leaves the "Russian" element out, but covers the basic phenomenon. I was surprised at the number of people who seem to be seeking the answer to this same question online. It's not a meme I would have expected. At any rate, there doesn't seem to be an agreed-upon answer for "why Russian race horse", but there was a suggestion (probably untrue) put forward. According to one source (who heard it from a guy, etc.), Russian horse trainers used to uh,... tie off their horses before a race, thinking that they would run faster if they really needed to go, and that they could expect to be allowed to relieve themselves at the finish line. I tend to doubt this, as much because I doubt a horse would be allowed to spatter judges and happy well-wishers with "copious" urination at their moment of glory, but mostly because I can't imagine that I myself would run better under those conditions.

Mushrooms... what are they?

So Doug, we are having a debate at my work about whether mushrooms are considered a vegetable in terms of food. The debate gets even more complex because apparently the scientific community considers a mushroom actually closer to the animal kingdom while the FDA considers it a vegetable. So which is it?

A: The honest answer is "maybe".

The term "vegetable" is similar to "germ", in that it is in general use but does not have a precise definition. "Vegetable" generally refers to the edible parts of a plant, but commonly includes mushrooms and other edible fungi, and no one seems to get torn out of the frame about it. Certainly mushrooms themselves haven't weighed in on the issue, and, as far as I know, they have no lobbyists on either side. It might be entertaining to make a good case that mushrooms are really animals, then see the reactions of the vegetarians at PETA.

Irresistible Force vs. Immovable Object

Q: Doug, if a cat always lands on its feet, and buttered bread always lands buttered-side down, what would happen if you tied buttered bread on top of a cat?

A: Science has disproved the "buttered-side down" hypothesis. Sad, but true. This still leaves the question of cats landing on their feet in all cases (assuming a live cat, of course), which has probably never been definitively tested because of the influence of animal rights groups. Therefore, a cat equipped with a buttered toast backpack is as likely to land on its feet as any other cat. A more interesting question might be, "What would happen if you strapped buttered toast to a cat's feet and threw the whole oily mess into the air?"