Let me ask you a question, if I may
Pam Robel
Why are we saving daylight? How do they make nougat? When do you know to dispose of food when it doesn't have an expiration date?
My big book of cliches tells me there's no such thing as a stupid question, but I think it may all depend on the context in which you ask it. In more than a year of conducting interviews for the Columbia Basin Herald, the opportunity has never arisen for me to ask an authority figure certain questions, like when is it socially acceptable to start putting up Christmas decorations?
Granted, questions concerning where to find the best candle for a jack-o-lantern aren't really appropriate for a story about, say, downtown revitalization. Talking about the issues of parking and pedestrian crossings may somehow be more pertinent to the conversation than finding out which are the best utensils for pumpkin carving. These out-of-context concerns could turn into more of a Jerry Seinfeld routine than an attempt to find out actual information.
But while the opportunity rarely opens up at work for me, to ask an official where I can find the best spot to pick huckleberries, that doesn't mean I'm not going to avoid the question completely. Over the past year a certain business reporter has been both willing and able to put up with me and help me determine the answers to life's foolish questions.
They say you learn something new everyday, but I'm not sure the answers to life's silly questions are exactly what they had in mind. There are some questions, like if Consumer Reports magazine will tell me if $99.95 is a good deal for a pet ferret, that still weigh lightly on my brain.
And while I have learned about the seemingly close extinction of bananas, new questions continually seem to pop up every day. While searching the dictionary or encyclopedia helps answer most of these queries, there are some questions I don't think I will ever know the answer to.
Why haven't more chain stores taken their name from characters in classic literature? Do you know the way to San Jose? How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? On some things, the world may never know.
Brad W. Gary is the city and politics reporter for the Columbia Basin Herald, and continues to search for the answers to life's truly silly questions.