We've answered this question twice in the past month. No. Check our archives at http://www.journaltimes.com for more information on what will be one of 2009's bigger issues.

What does the word "golf" mean? I was told it means "gentlemen only, ladies forbidden."

The word is actually German and it means "one more excuse to drink outside."

All kidding aside, golf is not an acronym for "gentlemen only, ladies forbidden." Men might sometimes wish such a thing, but it's just not true.

Like almost most every word in our language, golf derives from much older languages and dialects. Most sources trace the word to the medieval Dutch and the Scots.

The medieval Dutch word "kolf" or "kolve" meant club. Some believe the word passed to the Scots, whose dialect morphed the word into "golve," "gowl" or "gouf."

The word "golf" emerged by the 16th century. The first documented use of the word is in Edinburgh, England, on March 6, 1457, when King James II banned "ye golf" in an attempt to encourage archery practice, which was being neglected.

Oddly enough, March 6, 1457, also is the first recorded instance of men ignoring their boss and blowing off work in order to play golf.

Can you see the Great Wall of China from space?

No. You cannot see the Great Wall of China from space.

NASA astronaut Capt. Alan Bean is quoted in Tom Burnam's book "More Misinformation," published by HarperCollins in 1980:

"The only thing you can see from the moon is a beautiful sphere, mostly white (clouds), some blue (ocean), patches of yellow (deserts), and every once in a while some green vegetation. No man-made object is visible on this scale. In fact, when first leaving Earth's orbit and only a few thousand miles away, no man-made object is visible at that point either."

The quote appeared in a 1971 letter Bean wrote to columnist Doug Baker of the Portland Oregon-Journal after Baker referred to the urban legend of the wall being visible from space.

Astronaut Jay Apt agreed with Bean in an article published by National Geographic. Apt said the Great Wall is not visible from space, and speculated it's because the wall is the same color as surrounding soils and blends in.

You can see some man-made structures, like ships, railroads and cities, from space with the naked eye at a low orbit. But not the wall.

Where did the phrase "don't be such a pill" come from?

A definition in the Oxford Dictionary of the English Language dating to 1897 lists "an objectionable person; a bore" as a slang term for the word "pill." So, a "pill" is anything objectionable that someone must swallow or endure, and the meaning comes from the reluctance with which we all take most pills.

"Pill" has known many slang meanings through the years. It was slang for a teacher in the 1920s, and we all know what "the pill" is - that meaning came about in the 1960s. And hip-hop and rap culture sometimes refers to a basketball as the "pill."

What is Glad You Asked?

Glad You Asked finds answers to the questions that keep you up at night. Don't lose sleep. Call (262) 631-1758 or send your questions to

ask@journaltimes.com