Odds and ends, 11/17/08

As noted in comments elsewhere on this page, the AP caused a bit of a stir with its drive-by shooting of Huntington in a story about obesity.

I wasn't in the office last week when the advance copy of the article caused a stir. I did read the final version of the article, and I have to say the writer left out a couple of things. He forgot to mention inbreeding and guns.

Some of us like reading lists, such as "10 Most Evil Star Trek Villians" or "20 Worst Performances on American Idol." But other lists, such as "Top 10 Places to Retire" or "50 Best Universities" are utterly ridiculous because they seek to quantify a nonquanitifiable term: best. And "best" or "healthiest" mean different things to different people. With colleges, what's best for one of my kids won't be the best for the other two.

And "healthiest"? There are so many things you could factor into an equation that it would be utterly meaningless. An example: Age at death. People die younger in some places because of lifestyle risk factors that aren't as prevalent here. Does that make those places less "healthy" than the Tri-State?

Beware when news media people make value judgments, especially on topics such as health and medicine. We're not trained in that field. It's like I told someone a long time ago when I covered business. They asked why I didn't do a weekly column on stock tips. I said if I knew enough about the stock market to offer that kind of advice, I wouldn't be working here.

###

If this is Monday, there must be a gazillion Marshall football fans calling for Coach Mark Snyder's firing. I was talking with a sports writer this morning. Snyder may have a terrible won-loss record, but at least his players have been staying out of the Police Blotter more than the ones from Bobby Pruett's final years. That has to count for something.

###

Gasoline is selling for $2.159 a gallon in the Huntington area today. Soon it will be at half its peak price of this year.

Normally, gasoline prices go up slowly, but if crude oil prices or other pressures force the price of gasoline up, I'm guessing it will go up faster than normal. People are used to pay $3 a gallon or more, so I expect the inevitable price increases to be pretty rapid.

I could be wrong, but I doubt it.