Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2013 January 24

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January 24[edit]

Burning your tongue[edit]

Do typical burns from hot food have any effect on taste buds? How severe a burn would it have to be to affect your sense of taste? 70.162.4.242 (talk) 01:58, 24 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Do you mean permanently? Whenever I've burned my tongue, it makes it numb and I can't feel or taste anything properly, but it doesn't last long. --Tango (talk) 12:36, 24 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Our taste bud article says that taste buds only last about 10 days anyway - so if the damage only affects the taste buds themselves, you'd expect a sense of taste to start to recover within days and be fully back to normal within 10 days. But it seems likely that other structures might also be damaged - and that could take longer to repair, and might be more permanent. I don't think that a "burn" from (say) a mouthful of overly hot food is really killing taste buds though - my personal experience is that you get your sense of taste back much more quickly. But I couldn't find a solid reference for that - or why it might be. SteveBaker (talk) 14:27, 24 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
In my experience, the inside of the mouth heals surprisingly quickly - much quicker than the skin. Astronaut (talk) 16:16, 24 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
That extremely fertile environment is also why you can brush and floss and wash to your heart's content before going to bed, but come morning your mouth is a stinking cesspit of foulness all over again. -- Jack of Oz [Talk] 19:31, 24 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

California Highway 110 ever change name back to Pasadena Freeway[edit]

I've checked it up on Google satellite and even Wikipedia articles said California Highway 110 changed its name back to Arroyo Seco Parkway, since north 110 of Four Level Interchange to Downtown Pasadena is technically a Freeway, all the 110s connect with I-5, the freeway guide now reads SOUTH I-5 Fwy Santa Ana NORTH CA 110 Pkwy Pasadena, I looked up all the guide signs connects to 4 Level Int. It all (three) reads US 101 North Ventura I-110 Fwy South San Pedro CA-110 Pkwy North Pasadena. It is weird since CA 110 North of US 101 interchange is still technically a freeway I wonder how they call it a Parkway, because the signs should read Freeway not Parkway, it is possible they will revert it back to calling it freeway or communities like to call it Parkway instead of freeway, I don't know the reasons.--69.228.25.10 (talk) 02:09, 24 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

There are not universal agreed-upon definitions of the terms "highway", "freeway", "expressway", "parkway", "turnpike", etc. The best definition of this kind of road is a Controlled-access highway. Some states do use names to differentiate somewhat (for example, in the New York City metro area, any controlled access highway with the name "Parkway" in its name does not allow commercial vehicles, while those with other names do) but these rules don't have any widespread acceptance, and there is no consistent definition. I've known cul-de-sacs to bear the name "Parkway", and then there's roads like the Garden State Parkway or the one you note. In Greensboro, North Carolina they're naming all of the newly constructed controlled-access highways "boulevards", like Painter Boulevard and Bryan Boulevard, which in other areas has a different meaning. So, don't read too much into the name of a road when deciding what "class" of road that it is. The 110 itself hasn't changed its nature just because the name has changed. --Jayron32 02:26, 24 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]