Rusty Saber: Unanswered questions linger as mental cobwebs

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Joe McAdoo is former chairman of the communication department at Drury University.|ret||ret||tab|

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Tiny snippets of thoughts, like pieces of lint, collect in my mind until they become cobwebs hanging among other notions of a little more substance. House cleaners know cobwebs should be cleared away before they get out of hand. |ret||ret||tab|

Speaking of lint, not metaphorically, I have often wondered about lint that gathers in the clothes dryer. After drying clothes, the lint trap will be full. Here's the cobweb: I wonder, if I wash and dry the same garments over and over again, saving the lint, would the garments eventually disappear, leaving a huge mound of lint? |ret||ret||tab|

I doubt this will be answered because no one is likely to undertake the research necessary to answer it. |ret||ret||tab|

As I write this, the Tour de France bicycle race is under way. American Lance Armstrong is ahead, but I have no idea why. When I hear baseball scores, I understand who won and why. But, for the life of me, I don't understand the scoring nor do I know anyone who does. A mathematician should know, right? I asked a knowledgeable math professor friend to explain the mathematical scoring formula. He said, "I think it has something to do with riders' times." That clears it up for me. This may be one cobweb that won't be swept out. |ret||ret||tab|

There is a commercial on TV for a credit card that fits on your key ring. The advantage of this doodad is the convenience of having the credit card at the ready to slide into the credit card machine. That would be convenient, all right. If you were to lose your car keys, you also would lose your credit card. Think of the convenience to whomever might find the keys. It would be especially convenient for a thief. This may not be an idea whose time has come.|ret||ret||tab|

Speaking of convenience, have you noticed that whenever a sign in a place of business is prefaced by "For your convenience," the convenience isn't yours, but that of the business? My favorite: "For your convenience we cannot give separate checks." Let's see, requiring diners to calculate the portion of the bill each person owes is more convenient than separate checks? Now, that is a cobweb.|ret||ret||tab|

The previously mentioned TV commercial brings to mind the literally dozens of prescription drugs promoted on television. First, these commercials proclaim the drug to be a miracle concoction capable of curing just about anything. The claim is followed by a warning that side effects from taking the drug are only slightly less troublesome than the symptoms of the Black Plague. The purpose of the ad is to convince you to "ask your doctor'' if this wonder drug might be for you. |ret||ret||tab|

Here's where the mental cobweb clogs up my mind. If the drug truly is the miracle cure for athlete's foot, dandruff and everything in between, and you find out about it from a TV commercial, not your doctor, you probably need a new doctor.|ret||ret||tab|

One of the reasons your doctor went to medical school is to know which medicines are best for what ails you. It seems to my cobweb-cluttered mind that it would be better to stop spending money on lame-brained commercials and cut the prices of prescription drugs. |ret||ret||tab|

Finally, have you ever fantasized about what you would do if you won big dollars in the lottery? I mean really big dollars, like the couple from Hermann who recently won half of the $261.3 million Powerball jackpot.|ret||ret||tab|

Bill and Claudia Walkenbach, upon hearing of the windfall, reported a fantasy that I doubt many of us would share. He craved a tractor with brakes; she a new refrigerator. Is that nice or what? They may have to go into the witness protection program to escape the folks that will come out of the woodwork to "help'' them invest the money.|ret||ret||tab|

But if they resist the pressures, and remain millionaires who fantasize about tractors and refrigerators, they will be my heroes, and I'll hang on to this mental cobweb.|ret||ret||tab|

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