Wednesday, August 10, 2005

ALERT

It amazes me, the number of warnings, alerts, and advisories with which the authorities bombard us. Some of them - the ones issued by the national Weather Service for tornadoes and winter storms, for example - seem justified. But what, really, is the purpose of an "ozone advisory?"

I'm sure there's a legitimite purpose for it, but to the uninitiated it sounds like they're informing us of the existance of ozone. Okay, so there's an ozone advisory - consider me duly advised. So now what?

The ones that truly baffle me, however, are the very newest. I mean, do we really need such a thing as a "sunglass advisory?" Do we really need to be informed that the sun is shining? Perhaps I'm a bit of a Luddite, but I've always found that looking out the window is sufficient.

This mama-knows-best policy worries me. Are we really this helpless, or is it just another case of beurocrats with too much time on their hands? Am I going to turn on the radio one day and hear that the National Panic Service has issued a Headlight Advisory for the hours between sunset and sunrise, or a 70%-Nitrogen Watch for the forseeable future?