Ok, gotta address this - I've gotten the same email, only substitute "Only in America" for "Only in Canada". This one's been around for a long time.
Cigarettes or no, the reason the pharmacy is way in the back at the drug store is the same reason milk is way in the back at the grocery store - so the customers have to walk past, and be tempted by, all the stuff on the end caps and aisles en route to the back. It's called marketing. Try ordering your drugs from pharmacies that deliver to your door or have a drive-up window.
Speaking of drive-ups, those Braille ATMs - see
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/...eller-machines for the longer answer. Short answer: Americans with Disabilities Act. This one's been around since the early 90s.
The mismatched hotdogs and hamburgers? Same basic reason as the pharmacy in the back. The merchants want you to buy more hotdogs or hamburgers to match. I find it simply easier to do without - eat either a naked hotdog or one wrapped in plain bread.
Chaining pens to counters goes back to monks chaining incunabula (fancy word for illuminated manuscripts) to desks - to keep some idiot from walking off with it absentmindedly (admittedly it's harder to lug away a fair-sized book in contrast to waltzing off with a ballpoint.) The doors are open to welcome you and your money inside (though I can't say I ever remember doors to our banks here ever flung open wide except maybe for a grand opening. They pretty much stay closed like any other business' door.
Let's see ... off the top of my head:
all needles come prepackaged sterilized these days in most places in the world;
planes made of black box material would never get off the ground (too heavy) - and "black" boxes these days are more often than not orange.
airplane "terminal" - should be, and originally was, "terminus" end point, as in destination (where you arrived at the end of your journey.)
apartments aren't "stuck together" - funny enough, the buildings are deliberately designed that way: an apartment is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only A PART of a building. And is a flat, flat?
sheep don't shrink in the rain because they're made of flesh; wool only shrinks when it's woven - has to be processed for any shrinkage to occur, and I don't know where in the world it rains HOT. Steamy, maybe. The natural lanolin in sheep's wool also helps.
possibly Noah DID swat two mosquitos - he just missed several hundred more, lol.
rush hour is named for all the folks RUSHING to get home at the same time and causing a bottleneck and TA-DA! slow traffic.
the man who invests all your money may be a broker, or investment banker, but most likely is a salesperson (if not "the man in the mirror" for self-directed accounts.) One explanation of the word broker: it is believed to derive from an earlier Anglo-Norman word for a business deal, "broucour."
The origin of this meaning seems to come through a word meaning a gift made at the conclusion of a business deal, from an Arabic word for blessing, "barka" or "baraka." This word is related to other Semitic words for blessing. For example, the word "Baruch," ("blessed") initiates most Hebrew blessings.
Not all lemon juice is artificial, and not all lemon-scented dish liquid uses fresh lemons.
Mouse-flavored cat food? Probably out there as a specialty (does it taste like chicken?)
"Practice" has numerous meanings; in this case it's the exercise of an occupation or profession, not repetition to pefect a skill.
Re "psychic wins lottery" - would you advertise you were a psychic if you won? Can you imagine the nutcases that would be demanding you tell them the Mega Millions numbers for tonight's draw? Heck, if I'm lucky enough to win $20 I keep my trap shut, thank you very much.
The hair/skin/sunlight thing? Answer from straight-dope: "Sun darkens skin because it triggers the production of melanin, a brownish-black pigment that helps filter out harmful ultraviolet rays. It lightens hair because the UV light triggers the breakdown of these selfsame melanin molecules into simpler and evidently less colorful compounds." Got that?
The eye/open mouth thing? Don't do it myself; seldom use mascara these days. Supposedly an open mouth keeps the eye from blinking (nah). Perhaps one goes slack-jawed with concentration?
Did I miss any?