Questions to ponder in the fall

Questions keep tumbling like leaves blown by an October breeze.
Questions like:
•Do you suppose anyone would object if I brought a doggy bag to the next Taste of Jay County? There was so much good fare available that I left full and had barely made a dent.
•Is there any super weather authority who actually makes judgments on what is Indian Summer and what is not? The last few weeks would seem to qualify, but some insist that a hard freeze is required before any fall warm period can officially be Indian Summer. Does it make any difference?
•Is it a reflection on my calendar-keeping skills, my fading memory, or both that I showed up for a committee meeting last week a full 24 hours early?
•Shouldn’t candidates for elected office at least try to answer reporters’ questions? Yeah, we know, reporters can be obnoxious when there are a dozen shouting questions at once. But this campaign year is striking for the number of candidates who seem to think that an uninformed electorate works in their favor. The extreme was last week in Alaska when a candidate’s security staff handcuffed a reporter who kept nagging away with questions the office-seeker didn’t want to answer.
•How long will it be before some grad student does a study of the impact of YouTube on human behavior in public? Are we behaving better because of the fear of popping up on the Internet? Or are we acting like goofballs so we can get our 15 minutes of fame on the Web?
•Is there any clearer sign of a light agenda at a county commissioners meeting than having the conversation turn to squirrels? The consensus — in a conversation that involved all three commissioners, their attorney, citizens in the audience, and this reporter — was that the black squirrel population is a new phenomenon, that black squirrels are more aggressive than grey or fox squirrels, and that white squirrels are the specialty of Olney, Ill. (I warned you that there was little on the agenda to talk about.)
•How did Harold find me? I was out looking for fall photographs a couple of weeks back and was on a lonely stretch of Spooky Hollow Road. I’d stopped the car and was taking pictures when suddenly there was some dust on the horizon and a car was coming. I scurried back to the car and got out of the way, but as I did I looked in the rearview mirror and saw Harold, one of The CR’s motor route drivers, behind me. (I should have known he’d come along. We ran the route together a few years back when his car was in the shop.)
•Do wooly worms really have anything to tell us about the coming winter? And why should we listen to them? The late Art Wickleman used to insist there was a particular day in November that forecast the winter ahead, but he kept his calculations vague enough that any forecast seemed to fit.
•Is there a fall version of spring fever? And, if there is, isn’t wasting time on trivial questions like these one of the symptoms?[[In-content Ad]]