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Welcome to the Kotke Ride Home for July 21st, 2021.

I'm Glenn Fleischman in for Jackson Bird, who is on vacation.

How did paper sizes fall into their century-long groove?

How low-wage workers seem to have the upper hand in the job market, despite pandemic job losses,

and the very newest, freshest words are in.

Here are some of the cool things from the news today.

Why is letter-sized paper 8.5 by 11 inches? It's a great question, asked and answered by

mental floss in a recent article leaning on a variety of

existing research. The answer they say is that the molds used by the Dutch to make paper

centuries ago were settled on around 44 inches because that's the widest that a paper maker

or Vatman could hold while dipping into the liquid slurry of pulp and lift back up to drain the water.

A 17 inch depth is more obscure, but may again be related merely to physical capabilities.

Divide 17 by 2 and 44 by 4 and you get eight sheets of 8.5 by 11 paper.

Boom, there you go.

But do you know the story about the ham?

A man is cooking a ham for his partner who asks, why do you cut the ends off? Hmm, I don't know.

My mother always did that. They visit the mother and she says, oh, I don't know. It makes it more juicy.

...