Betty Jo Gigot, Editor and Publisher

For as long as I can remember, I have been an avid reader and gatherer of information. My idea of a really good day is to consume a couple of newspapers and most of a good book with cable news going on the background, just in case something interesting happens. Our house is lined with bookcases, filled with hundreds of books (sorted by author) with huge wicker baskets holding the overflow. I am probably the perfect example of “information overload.”

My worst nightmare would be being stranded on a desert island with nothing to read. I still remember, with discomfort, sitting on a road in northern Kansas at a construction roadblock with nothing to read but the car’s owner’s manual. It was almost as bad as the time I was stuck for two hours, in a rainstorm, in the lobby of a repair facility for our motor coach, with a soap opera on the TV. But that is another story.

My favorite read right now is Michael Crichton’s State of Fear, a fast-paced 2004 novel about global warming. Crichton’s novel forcefully reminded me that, in spite of what you think you know, that may not be what is true, no matter how long or how many times it is said.

A lady at the dinner table the other night said, “I need to find out where to have my 1998 car worked on so I can use E85.” When asked why, she replied, “Well, in a year or so that is all we will be able to buy.” Her source? “They say that on TV every day.”

“I don’t know about global warming, but I do know that the glaciers are melting,” she claimed. According to Crichton’s sources, Antarctica is one and a half times the size of Europe or the U.S. Ninety percent of it is ice and it is getting colder. More hurricanes? The most in the U.S. – 23 – happened in 1940 to 1949. Wonder what man was doing to cause that? We are back to my lady acquaintance who wanted to be sure she cooked the Thanksgiving turkey so her family did not get bird flu! The point, of course, is that a wealth of information doesn’t make you smart. Discernment, common sense and a strong streak of skepticism are still necessary in a world where public relations, politics and dollars can skew the facts every which way.

Now, apply all of this to the things that count for us because we certainly took a hit on this very issue recently. BSE is a perfect fit, a perfect case of misinformation that kept growing and growing. In State of Fear, the antagonist, a global warming guru, finally comes unglued because “you can’t make any money with this global warming bit.” The BSE furor has died down now because, unless you count certain lawyers and test-kit manufacturers, “you can’t make any money” at it anymore.

O O O

Beef Empire Days always brings surprises and this year, with a visiting group of Scotsmen, was no exception. They were obviously men of the earth, serious about their industry, with that touch of devil-may-care about them that makes
them the type of people, like ours, who take a chance every day on weather and governments.

O O O

By the time you read this, Happy the bus driver, the Gypsy Wagon and I will be traveling the north country, visiting glaciers, Canadian cattle feeders and old friends in Idaho. With the thermometer hovering at over 100 degrees here, north sounds good. Enjoy the rest of the summer.