The Explainer is a neat feature of Slate Magazine, where its editors try to answer life's most perplexing questions (like How do you become a Santa Claus for the holidays? Sign up with a Santa distributor).

But every year, there are questions people sent that stump even the most able Explainers. Here are the questions that stumped Slate's Explainer in 2008:

Why don't humans have a mating season?

Is it just me, or do all national anthems the world over, no matter how rich and exotic the culture, seem to sound like European marching-band music? Wouldn't one expect China's national anthem be more "plinky"? Shouldn't Iraq's national anthem sound a little more "Arab-y"?

Why do cockroaches flip over on their backsides when they die? I sprayed RAID into a hole in my wall the other day, and by the next morning I found six cockroaches laid out on my floor, all flipped over and all very dead!

Why do the women gymnasts walk around between events with that goofy arm-swing gait?

Link - via Favorite Office Time Wasters

Previously on Neatorama: The 25 Most Important Questions in the History of the Universe