Roof-Rack Roots, Or Why Yakimas Are Made In Calif.

Let's get straight to the mail.

Ahem! My neighbor to the north has one of these Yakima bike/kayak/canoe/pushbroom sport racks on his Subaru. My neighbor to the south has one on his Explorer. My Uncle Fred in Wapato has one on his baling machine. Are Yakimas really made in Yakima? - Thomas Thule, North Bend.

Thomas: Yakima racks are not made in Yakima. They're made in Arcata, Calif. BUT: They have roots in Yakima, the Bowling Trophy Capital of the Northwest.

The story goes like this: Long ago (1970s) and far away (Yakima), an inventor named Otto Lagervall came up with a new sheet-music-stand design that swept the sheet-music-stand world. This freed him to invent other things, such as kayak footbraces.

Eventually, Otto got tired of inventing and decided to sell his company. In 1979, he did so, transferring all of Yakima Industries to some young bucks from California.

The young bucks, who still own the company today as older bucks, called it "Wheels of Industry," for some time, manufacturing crude (by today's standards) roof racks.

Ultimately, the middle-aged bucks decided "Wheels of Industry" sounded too much like a game show or a wagon-train museum. They switched the name back to the catchier "Yakima," a Native American word meaning either, "valley of many bears," or "valley of fat bellies," according to Yakima Products spokeswoman Robin Hashem, who would never joke about such things.

Today, the company has many, many employees, who, when they are not playing table tennis in the California factory, make roof-rack accessories to haul anything from mountain bikes to mothers-in-law. After work, they haul things around on their cars and scoff at their competitor, Thule, which is in a gutter-to-gutter battle with Yakima for worldwide roof-rack supremacy.

You can play pick-a-rack yourself this weekend at REI, where Yakima officials will make actual appearances in conjunction with the store's annual Yakima rack sale.

And there you have it. Next week: How Thule of Connecticut got started at El Ranchito in Zillah.

Ahem! Just what is an emergent pupa, and where can I get one? - Confused, Ballard.

Confused: We polled the newsroom on this one. Two people thought it was a band in Wallingford. One other guy said it was a skin disease. Wrong-o. It's a fishing fly, made to imitate the various stages of the caddis pupa. Get one at your local fly-fishing store or in specially marked boxes of Froot Loops.