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Good Question: Reply All: Foreign Aid, Water Towers, Blizzards

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- With the debate about the national debt, and the federal budget a lot of you are wondering if cutting foreign aid could be a fix. Plus, it's summer, it's hot and it's ice cream time. So which Dairy Queen Blizzards are the biggest sellers?

Jason DeRusha hits Reply All to some of your good questions.

People are watching every dollar the government spends. Karen Orr in Anoka wants to know: How much do we give out in foreign aid?

It's less than two cents on the dollar and many observers think we get far more than we give. We spend almost $45 billion a year in aid to foreign countries. Israel and Egypt get a third of it.

Jeremy in Delano wondered: Why don't you see water towers in large cities like Minneapolis?

The only ones we have are historic relics, like the "Witch's Hat" in Prospect Park. Chicago doesn't have them either. The systems are larger in bigger cities, and they're not necessary.

Minneapolis has its water plant on a hill. They keep extra water in underground tanks. A water tower provides water pressure, and having the plant on a hill does the same thing. It's why there are water tanks on the top of skyscrapers. It provides pressure because the city pressure wouldn't pump the water to the top floor.

When you come to a TV station to be a guest you hang out in the "Green Room." We're remodeling ours and painting it blue apparently.

Ben Meyers from Minneapolis wants to know: Why do they call it the "Green Room?"

One theory is that in 1599, the Blackfriars Theater in London included a room behind the scenes; This room happened to be painted green. Actors waited to go on stage in that room, and they called "the green room."

Mellissa Carson from Savage loves Dairy Queen blizzards and she wondered: What's the best-selling Blizzard?

I called the International Dairy Queen headquarters in Richfield. They tell me No. 3 is cookie dough, No. 2 is Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. The No. 1 blizzard, which has been that way for years and years: Oreo. Any given store can have up to 15-20 flavors.

"Those three flavors make up over 30 percent of our blizzard sales," said Dean Peters, associate vice president of communications with Dairy Queen.

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